Chicken, cheese and sun-dried tomato rolls

Serves: 0
Course: Starter
Cooking Time: 0 hr 20 mins
Ingredients
  • 400g all-butter puff pastry, defrosted
  • 1 egg, lightly whisked
  • For the chicken filling:
  • 1 tbsp olive oil
  • Half an onion, diced small
  • 250g cooked chicken
  • 10g fresh basil, leaves torn (or chopped tarragon, parsley)
  • 40g semi-sun-dried tomatoes (or roasted red peppers)
  • 100g Emmental cheese (or Cheddar), diced
  • 50g cream cheese
  • Sea salt

1. Preheat an oven to 200 degrees Celsius fan, or equivalent, and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

2. To make the filling. Heat the olive oil in a heavy-based pan, add the onions and a pinch of salt. Cook the onions gently for five minutes until translucent and soft.

3. Blitz the cooked chicken in a food processor to roughly chop it (or else finely chop it by hand). Transfer the chicken to a mixing bowl and add the cooled onions, herbs and chopped tomatoes (drain off any excess oil). Mix all the ingredients together and season well with salt. Lastly, stir in the diced cheese.

4. Roll out a rectangle of puff pastry on a clean work surface placing the long edge in front of you. Spread a tablespoon of cream cheese, to form a 3cm wide strip along the long edge of the pastry. Spoon a 3cm thick strip of filling over the cream cheese. Once filled, roll the pastry over the filling into a tight roll, leaving a 1cm wide border of pastry which is then basted with beaten egg Cut away the remaining pastry and use it to make the next roll, in the same way.

5. Cut into individual rolls, approximately 8cm in length. Prick each with a fork and baste the top with egg. Transfer to the lined baking sheet (allow space between rolls) and bake in the oven for 20 minutes until risen and golden.

Variation: For extra flavour add chorizo, pancetta, dried herbs, chilli or spices when frying the onions.