The thing to do with chicken breasts is braai them and make chicken burgers. You obviously need the breasts to be skinned and deboned; these are also known as chicken breast fillets. The typical chicken breast fillet is a bit lopsided with a bulky part and a thin point, so put the breast fillet on a chopping board and give it a few gentle whacks on the thick part with a meat tenderising mallet before the braai. This will make it uniform in thickness, which makes for easier braaing and will soften the meat for biting through when it’s on the burger. If you hit it too much, it will disintegrate, and you will be left with chicken mince. You don’t want that so do be gentle with the mallet. This is stating the obvious, but a chicken burger contains meat, salad, dairy and starch, so it really is a balanced meal all on its own.
Ingredients
- 1 chicken breast
- salt and pepper (or braai salt)
- olive oil
- 1 hamburger roll
- 2 slices of tomato
- 1 lettuce leaf
- cheese
- mayonnaise
- peri-peri sauce
Method
- Place each chicken breast fillet flat on a chopping board and lightly pound the thick side with a meat mallet, wine bottle, rolling pin, side of a meat cleaver or any other item of sufficient weight and size. You want the whole fillet more uniform in thickness and this step will make the meat easier to braai, better looking on your burger and softer to bite.
- Spice each chicken fillet with salt and pepper or your favourite braai salt. Either brush each one with oil or simply pour a bit of oil into the bowl with them and toss the fillets around until all are coated.
- Braai the meat for about 6–10 minutes until it is done. The nice thing about chicken breast fillets is that you can actually see the meat colour changing from raw to ready on the braai.
- Assemble the burger: Buttered roll, chicken breast, cheese, peri-peri sauce, mayonnaise, tomato and lettuce leaf. When assembling burgers I always like to place the cheese right next to the patty so that the heat of the meat can melt the cheese.
How to make potato wedges
(as seen on photo with burger)
Parboil potatoes in salted water until just soft, but not too soft: a fork should just be able to go in – this will take about 20 minutes. Drain very well, i.e. get all the water off. Cut into wedges, toss around in olive oil, and generously sprinkle the wedges with coarse sea salt. Bake in an oven pre-heated to 200C until brown and crispy – this will take about 25 minutes. Serve with your chicken burgers.
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