Combining chicken, bacon, cheese and BBQ sauce - is there anything more enticing than hunter's chicken?
This hunter’s chicken recipe takes just 10 minutes to prepare, so it’s the perfect choice for a weekday meal. Hunter’s chicken – known to Italians as chicken cacciatoré and the French as chicken chasseur – is thought to date back to medieval times. Our European cousins use a similar brown sauce in their recipes but those dishes are more stew-like and omit the bacon (ie. the best bit). We love to serve this recipe with homemade coleslaw and BBQ sauce, and we’ve outlined the methods for making these in the recipe – but, if you’re in a hurry, opt for shop-bought instead. Hunter’s chicken also goes well with mashed potato and a good helping of green vegetables.
Ingredients
- 4 chicken breasts
- 12 slices of pancetta
- 150g (5oz) grated gouda cheese
- For the BBQ sauce:
- 85g (3oz) tomato ketchup
- 1 clove of garlic, crushed
- 1/2tbsp white wine vinegar
- 1/2tbsp sweet paprika
- pinch of cayenne pepper
- For the coleslaw:
- 2 carrots, peeled into ribbons
- Half a small red cabbage, shredded
- Juice of 1 lime
- 4tbsp creme fraiche
- 3 spring onions, chopped
- 1tsp black sesame seeds
Method
Preheat the oven to 200°C, Gas 5. Wrap 3 slices of pancetta around each chicken breast and bake in the oven for 25 mins.
Meanwhile, make the BBQ sauce by simply combining all the ingredients in a bowl and mix together.
Remove the chicken from the oven and spread over the BBQ sauce, top with the cheese and return to the oven for a further 5 mins.
To make the coleslaw: mix the carrot and red cabbage with the creme fraiche and lime juice, put into a serving bowl and top with the spring onions and sesame seeds.
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Top tip for making hunter's chicken
For added flavour, swap the Gouda cheese for mature Cheddar cheese instead.
Which bacon is best to use in hunter's chicken?
We'd recommend using smoked back bacon to make this hunter's chicken – it will crisp perfectly without burning.
