Help me perk up this chicken dish

[David M. Bueker]

Fiddling around with stuff we had on hand last night. I mixed some dry "Italian Herbs" and black pepper into some goat cheese. Then I topped two flattened chicken breasts with some ham & the goat cheese and rolled them up. Dredged in flour seasoned with a little szechuan pepper, egg wash then rolled in crushed almonds. Baked them for 35 mins at 350 degrees. They were good. They were juicy. They needed something to be just that much better, and I am not sure what.

Thoughts?

I don't eat chicken but squeezing lemon/lime often helps to bring things together and brighten a dish like this (although you did mention that it was plenty juicy).

[David M. Bueker]

I thought about lemon, but I had used them all up the prior night!

Thanks.

It also occurs to me that you might get more mileage by omitting some ingredients. I know you said only a 'little' szechuan pepper but that's a pretty strong flavor. So you might consider accentuating the almond/goat cheese/herb angle, or going another direction with szechuan pepper and one or two other supporting flavors.

My diagnosis is that the goat cheese isn't pulling its weight. Switch to something more interesting (...ya know, closer to a Cordon Bleu!

I totally agree with Rashaan, the goat cheese and the Szechuan peppers would fight with one another, I would think. And, then there were the Italian herbs, which can often contain a bit of rosemary and marjoram, other strong flavors. You also kind of over processed the preparation with egg wash and crushed almonds. It's difficult to see which direction you were going with this dish. Next time, eliminate two of the following 3 ingredients: goat cheese, Italian seasoning, Szechuan peppers. Pick one and let that give you a direction. Goat cheese says to me a French direction (use fines herbs or herbs de provence and finish with a little wine and butter reduction). Italian seasoning says obviously Italian, finish with a little wine, shallot and caper sauce reduction. Szechuan peppers say Asian-inspired flavors, finish with a little ginger-infused sake reduction and green onions. Then there is the preparation. Which of those three would go best with the almond crust (by now you should be thinking Asian). A little book called The Flavor Bible is good with helping you with creativity in the kitchen. Hope this helps.

[David M. Bueker]

I should not have mentioned the szechuan pepper, as it was incosequential and provided zero.

For me, it would call out for a sauce...something like what JoAnn suggested...maybe a little bit of shallot sauteed in a little butter, then a little wine (maybe even marsala) and some chicken broth, then reduced.
Your dish sounded yummy though.

[David M. Bueker]

Thanks everyone. I appreciate all the feedback. For what it's worth the flour & egg wash were for 2 reasons - the first to get some kind of minor barrier to having the cheese flow out (success for the most part), and also to help the nuts stick (success again).

I might consider a pan sear first next time & then a finishing shallot/wine sauce.

Nice thread. Love to hear how people think about putting things together. Agree that The Flavor Bible is a great reference.

I love the Flavor Bible, never knew so many ingredients complimented each other....successfully!

[Jenise]

Coming into this late, but my first reaction was more about method than flavor competition, that I would have instinctively pan-seared the chicken before sending into the oven to finish. I'd think the coating might have been a bit dull. I use almonds on crab cakes sometimes, where they're hardness adds something good to the soft crab filling. It wouldn't occur to me to use them to coat something as firm as a chicken breast.