This is my 1st blog post for my new gluten-free weekly blog series “Come to the Table” and I am serving up a bacon wrapped stuffed chicken with shrimp accompanied by a sweet potato puree (recipe feeds three (3) individuals).  When I started cooking dinner, I was not sure where I was going, as I had chicken, shrimp and bacon, all of which sounded good to eat.  So I decided to use all three ingredients and make a bacon wrapped stuffed chicken with shrimp as the main entrée and use sweet potatoes to accompany the dish.

First I began by pealing and preparing three (3) sweet potatoes to be roasted, as roasting the sweet potatoes will take between 45 minutes to 1 hour, so this needs to be done first.  Once pealed, I prepared the sweet potatoes by cutting up into small bit size pieces and placing in a glass baking dish.  Add salt and pepper to the sweet potatoes and then drizzle black truffle oil (Con Olio carries both white & black truffle oils) over the sweet potatoes and hand toss to ensure the sweet potatoes are fully coated and then placing the baking dish in the over at 375 degrees. Once the sweet potatoes were done, I placed into the Kitchen-Aid blender to puree.  Next I slowly added a small amount of chicken stock to the puree to smooth out the texture of the sweet potatoes (approximately 1 table-spoon) and then placed in a bowl and set aside to be plated once the wrapped chicken was done.

Using six (6) chicken thighs, using a meat tenderizer, I thinned out the chicken (remove any excess fat prior to tenderizing) so I could wrap the shrimp inside (*Bonus = chicken is more tender when prepared this way).  Once I had the chicken prepared I began cleaning and deveining the gulf shrimp and placing in a separate bowl (so as to not cause any cross contamination between the poultry and seafood prior to wrapping).

Taking the chicken thighs and wrapping the shrimp inside first, I then finished off with wrapping the stuffed chicken on the outside with bacon and placing a toothpick through the stuffed chicken.  Placing the bacon wrapped chicken and shrimp into a stainless steel pan, I seared the bacon wrapped chicken on all sides and then placed in a cast iron skillet with a little white wine and placed in the oven at 325 degrees for 45 minutes (pull chicken out of the oven and cut to ensure fully cooked).  Using the au jus from pan to sear the bacon wrapped chicken, I deglazed the pan with a little white wine and butter.  Once the wrapped chicken was fully cooked and ready to plate, I placed the bacon wrapped chicken back into the stainless steel pan, spooning the au ju over with chicken to finish off the chicken dish.

I began plating the dish with the sweet potato puree (reheat for 30 seconds to 1 minute in the microwave) by utilizing two spoons (taking a spoon full of sweet potato puree in one spoon and then taking the other spoon scooping it alternating spoons which created the unique shape).  Place two (2) servings of sweet potato on each plate in a “v-shape.”

Then place the bacon wrapped chicken and shrimp on the plate by resting at the center of the sweet potato puree.  Lightly drizzle the au jus to finish off the plate.  Enjoy!

Recipe Summary:

Three (3) medium to large Sweet Potatoes

Six (6) Chicken Thighs

Six (6) Gulf Shrimp

Bacon

Salt/Pepper/Butter

Truffle Oil/White Wine