Chicken roulade with pumpkin and kesong puti

One of the joys of having your own home is hosting your friends. It was such a treat to get together last week with my blog partner and have the opportunity to  cook and have dinner together.

One of my dilemmas was what to serve. I was frantically searching for something to cook that I went through a whole bunch of cookbooks for ideas.  Of course I had to balance the meal with something healthy.

I had subscribed to a digital magazine in ZINIO (application in both android and itunes) called CLEAN EATING. Most of the recipes are low cal. so I was quite happy to test one of them.

One of the featured ones in the november issue was this chicken roulade. I had to substitute the kesong puti (carabao cheese) for the soft cheese in the recipe. First, because I really had no idea what it was.
(anyone heard of chevre'?)

So, here is my adapted recipe

INGREDIENTS:
olive oil or cooking spray
1 tbsp olive oil
1 cup diced pumpkin
2 shallots (sibuyas tagalog)
1/4 cup bread crumbs
2 tsp chopped sage (you can substitute dried- reduce to 1/2 tsp)
1/2 tsp ground pepper
1/4 cup goat cheese (or kesong puti)
1/4 tsp salt
6 boneless chicken breast
6 slices bacon (you can use ham)

preheat oven to 400F (you can use a turbo broiler if you don't have an oven). mist baking sheet w/ cooking spray

In a medium skillet, heat oil on medium. Add the pumpkin and shallots and cook till tender., stirring occasionally. 4-6 minutes. Transfer to bowl and stir in the bread crumbs, goat cheese, sage, pepper and salt. set aside.

Arrange chicken smooth side up on flat work surface. Using a meat mallet, pound chicken to 1/4-1/2 inch thickness. place bacon (or ham) on the work surface and top with chicken. season with salt and pepper. spread squash mixture on top of chicken and then roll. Secure with a toothpick.

Arrange in baking sheet and roast for 25- 30 minutes till internal temperature registers 165F. remove from oven and cover with foil. let rest 5 minutes. Remove toothpicks and serve.

I have to say, I was really in a rush to cook this dish. My bacon was frozen so I had to chop pieces off to wrap the chicken in. (I had to top the bacon instead). If you attempt this, you might get a better end product if you WRAP the bacon over the chicken. (there was a time constraint because I had guest coming over. It was a MASTERCHEF moment)

I also paired it with spagettini with a dulong  (small fish) pasta sauce I had on hand (w/c I bought  at a weekend market). I indicated that you need to season the chicken breast before you wrap it. The original recipe did not call for this but I felt it needed more seasoning after cutting into the end product. I don't know if the original goat cheese called for was more pungent but using kesong puti (carabao cheese) was mild. If you like it to have more "body" maybe you can experiment with a different cheese in the filling. (maybe feta?-- just make sure it's a soft cheese)

My husband had a nice solution to that though. He popped open a few bottles of wine and started pouring! Maybe he thought getting my guests drunk would make them enjoy the food more. (hahahahaha)

It was pretty good for my first "dinner" party. Maybe I could attempt a more complicated menu next time. (and maybe I can devote the whole afternoon to cooking it)