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Pancetta-topped chicken with lentils and watercress sauce

Pancetta-topped chicken with lentils & watercress sauce

This quick, peppery, vibrant green sauce doesn’t require any cooking and acts as the perfect foil to the earthy lentils and salty breadcrumbs

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Source of fibre1 of your 5 a day
  • Serves2
  • CourseMain meal
  • Prepare15 mins
  • Cook15 mins
  • Total time30 mins

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Ingredients

  • 2 Cooks' Ingredients Sliced Pancetta
  • 15g panko
  • 4 fresh thyme, leaves only, roughly chopped
  • ½ unwaxed lemon, zest and juice
  • 80g watercress, thick stems discarded
  • 50g half fat crème fraîche
  • 380g pack, 2 British chicken breast fillets
  • ½ tbsp olive oil
  • 250g beluga lentils

Method

  1. Heat a large frying pan over a high heat. Cook the pancetta until browned and thoroughly cooked, then set aside on kitchen paper to crisp up, leaving the fat in the pan. Tip the breadcrumbs and thyme into the hot fat and fry over a low heat for a couple of minutes, or until golden. Transfer to a bowl, stir through the lemon zest, then crumble in the pancetta. Season and set aside.

  2. Put the lemon juice into a food processor with most of the watercress, the crème fraîche and 1-2 tbsp water. Whizz until smooth, then season and divide between 2 plates.

  3. Put the chicken between 2 pieces of parchment paper and bash with a rolling pin until 1cm thick. Season. Wipe out the pan used to fry the pancetta, then heat the oil in it. Cook the chicken breasts for 3-4 minutes on each side, or until thoroughly cooked, the juices run clear and there is no pink meat. Heat the lentils according to pack instructions, add to the plates with the sauce, then top with the chicken, the reserved watercress and breadcrumbs.

Cook’s tip

Flattening chicken breast fillets means they cook more quickly and more evenly. It also helps to tenderise the meat.

Nutritional

Typical values per serving when made using specific products in recipe

Energy

2,071kJ/ 493kcals

Fat

16g

Saturated Fat

5.8g

Carbohydrates

31g

Sugars

2.3g

Fibre

9.5g

Protein

51g

Salt

0.7g

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