Asparagus Stuffed Chicken and a Hollandaise Sauce - Recipe!

Today for dinner we had asparagus stuffed chicken and a hollandaise sauce - I've never cooked asparagus before and I can't remember the last time I ate it but I knew I loved it and wanted a recipe that included it. It's not cheap but it's readily available at the moment so I decided to splurge on some.

This recipe is my own - but made from a variety of sources from the net, I found lots of recipes and merged them into something that I wanted to try and that was simple enough and cheap enough. I've never made or tasted a hollandaise sauce before and when I tried it from a spoon I wasn't overly keen, it just seemed to taste like creamy eggy milk. But added to the actual meal it was really tasty and really suited it!

Ingredients:

Chicken breasts - I used 4 smallish ones (enough to serve however many you want to feed!)
3 cloves of garlic - minced
Vegetable oil
Salt and pepper
Chicken stock - 3/4 of a pint (1 stock cube)
Bunch of asparagus
Cocktail sticks

Hollandaise:


2 tsp lemon juice
3 egg yolks
1/2 cup melted butter
1/2 cup milk
1/2 tsp mustard powder
Dash of tabasco (can be left out)


Method:


Wash the asparagus and cut 2 inches off of the bottom of it. Cut the spears in half.

Slice the chicken breasts horizontally so that you have thin-ish slices. Season the top of the chicken slices with salt and pepper and rub in the minced garlic.
Lay 2-3 asparagus pieces onto the chicken, wrap the chicken around it and secure using a couple of cocktail sticks.
Heat 1 tbsp of oil in a pan, add the chicken and brown for a few minutes on high.
Add the chicken stock, turn the heat down to medium and simmer for 15-20 minutes (until the chicken is cooked through).

While the chicken is simmering you can make your hollandaise (takes 5-10 minutes).
Add the egg yolks to a saucepan but DON'T put it on any heat yet. Whisk the egg yolks together and then add the mustard powder and tobasco, whisk this in. Very gradually whisk in the melted butter (still no heat at this point). Once the butter is incorporated put it on a low-medium heat, whisking gently all the time. Gradually add in the milk (keep whisking!) until it is all in. Bring the sauce to nearly boiling and then remove from the heat.

Remove the sticks from the chicken and serve with whatever you fancy - we had mashed potato as we love it and some broccoli. Drizzle the hollandaise over and ENJOY!

We really enjoyed this meal, it was tasty, full of flavour and something a bit different (for us at least). I will definitely make it again, I might even see if I can source cheaper asparagus - I wonder if there is a 'pick your own' locally that might have it? Will have to see.

Cost (for 2 adults and 1 child (the other refused to try it):


Chicken breasts (frozen): £1.50
Asparagus: £1.50
Potatoes: £0.70
Eggs: £0.50
Butter: £0.50
Milk: £0.10
Mustard powder: £0.10
Lemon juice/tabasco/oil: £0.10
Stock: £0.10
Garlic: £0.10
Broccoli: £0.20

Total: £5.40