First posted: Jun 30, 2014
Banting Baked Chicken with Goats Cheese and Bacon
In my last post, I mentioned that I was jumping on the #Banting Bandwagon, and all the coconut oil and breadless-ness that that entails. And if you’ve been living under a rock and have no idea what I’m talking about it, banting is, in a nutshell, following a diet of eating meals that are basically Low Carb High Fat (LCHF), and avoiding sugar and processed foods, and it’s taken South Africa by storm. You can read more about the whole story and what you should and shouldn’t be eating if you’re following the plan here.
And while I feel very over the Banting hashtags and hype, and now that I’ve purged my pantry of all processed evils, I’m rather enjoying myself, along with guilt-free spoonfuls of double-thick Greek yoghurt, creamy coffees and handfuls of biltong. Yip.
As with any healthy eating plan, chicken breasts are always a great place to start. Low fat, high protein, and a very obliging blank canvas for so many other flavours. Here, paired with the salty goats cheese and crispy bacony-bacon it’s pretty amazing. Crunchy lemony green beans tossed with roasted almonds rounds everything off rather nicely. If you don’t love goats cheese, cubes of brie or spoonfuls of ricotta would also work brilliantly.
Ingredients
Cooks in: Serves:2
- 75g cubed bacon
- 2 chicken breasts (with or without skin is up to you)
- 75g goats cheese, at room temperature
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 1 Tbsp olive oil
- 100g green beans, trimmed on both ends
- Zest and juice of 1/2 a lemon
- Small handful almonds (raw or roasted), roughly chopped
What to do
1. Fry the bacon until lightly golden, remove from the pan with a slotted spoon and set aside to drain on some kitchen paper. 2. Season the chicken breasts with a little salt and black pepper on both sides and then slice them open down the middle of one side, leaving the other side still attached, and flip open like a book. 3. Mix together the bacon and goats cheese with a fork, adding in a little extra black pepper but no salt, the goats cheese is salty enough. 4. Fill each breast with the filling, then close gently. Heat 1 Tbsp olive oil in a pan over medium-high heat and fry the chicken breasts for 4-5 minutes on each side, or until a golden crust has formed and the meat has cooked through. Remove from the heat and set aside to rest. 5. Meanwhile, cook the green beans in boiling water for 1-2 minutes, remove and refresh under cool water so that they keep their bright green colour. Drizzle with a little lemon juice, add the lemon zest and almonds and serve immediately with the chicken.
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