Ballottine of Chicken 

This is a classical French paste used in the iconic Beef Wellington, but I came to know and love it as a stuffing for my ballottine of chicken.

Ingredients:

• 2-3 Tbsp olive oil

• 1 lb button mushrooms (cleaned and quartered)

• 4 oz sliced gourmet mushroom blend (baby Bella, shiitake, oyster) (optional)

• 1 small yellow onion (quartered)

• 6 cloves garlic

• 1 tsp thyme

• Salt and pepper

Directions:

1. Heat a sauté pan over medium high heat.

2. In a large food processor, chop fine all the mushrooms

3. Add 2-3 Tbsp olive oil to pan, then add the chopped mushrooms and stir to combine.

4. Back in the food processor, add the onion and garlic, pulse till chopped fine. Add onion garlic mixture to pan. Stir to combine.

5. At this point, the mixture is a wet, slurpy mass. Add a healthy pinch of salt and fresh ground pepper along with the thyme. Stir to combine. Continue to cook and stir to evaporate the moisture from the mixture.

6. You can tell you are at the right place when you no longer see the moisture bubbling at the sides when you stir it. It will take 10-12 minutes overall. Once you see some of the mushroom mixture caramelized on the side of the pan, remove from heat. (See optional notes at end)

7. Taste and adjust seasoning to your preference. It should have a rich, earthy mushroom flavor. If using for a stuffing, place mixture into a large metal bowl and spread into a thin layer across the bottom and sides to speed up the cooling.

I use this in my ballottine of chicken as a stuffing along with some prosciutto ham. It can be used as a spread on toast points for those non-paleo cocktail hosts, and as a condiment on almost anything like a burger.

(Optional step) Once you evaporate the liquid from the mixture, you can deglaze the pan with a splash of good, dry, Spanish sherry, scrape the bits off the bottom and sides, then cook the liquid off. This adds an nice extra layer of flavor. You can play with other wines like a bold red, or a Marsala.