Jamie Oliver's Polenta-crusted Chicken with Sweetcorn Mash and Tomato Relish

Jamie Oliver's Polenta-crusted Chicken
Home Cooking



I haven't had much motivation to cook recently, as you've probably deduced by the decrease in cooking posts. Last week, something happened that turned this all around and I've been involved in something close to a cooking marathon.

A huge delivery arrived for me containing beautiful poultry from Game Farm. Game Farm is the largest multi-species bird producer in the Southern Hemisphere and supplies wholesalers, supermarkets, specialty butchers and many top restaurants all around Australia. I was lucky enough to be given a huge range to try and spent all last week researching recipes.



Polenta-crusted chicken was something I found in Jamie's Kitchen and had been meaning to cook for a while. I even bought a packet of polenta for this recipe but forget all about it.



I had some beautiful skinless cornfed chicken breasts that were perfect for this recipe.

I reduced the original recipe by half to create 2 serves. The recipe calls for bananas and I bought some ridiculously over-priced ladyfingers that ended up tasting awful. If you're going to include grilled bananas, get some good ones.

Polenta-crusted Chicken with Sweetcorn Mash and Tomato Relish
Serves 2

Ingredients:

• 4 skinless chicken breast fillets
• 200g flour
• 1/2 tbsp all spice
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp chili powder
• 1 egg
• 100g polenta
• 1-2 tbsp butter
• 2 bananas

For the mash

• 4 medium potatoes
• 125ml milk
• 2 tbsp butter
• 2 cobs of corn
• 1 small bunch of spring onion, finely sliced

For the relish

• 50ml vinegar (I used white wine vinegar)
• 1 shallot, peeled and sliced
• 200g green or red tomatoes, chopped
• 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1 handful of fresh, flat-leaf parsley, chopped
• 1 handful of fresh mint, chopped

Procedure:

For the relish...
1. In a small saucepan, cook down the shallots with the vinegar and a bit of sugar. Simmer on low heat until the vinegar has reduced by half.2. Stir in the tomatoes and olive oil. Allow this to cool down.3. The herbs are stirred through right at the end, before serving.
For the mash...
4. Boil the potatoes in some salted water until completely cooked through.
5. Remove the skin and mash with some milk.6. We then pushed the potato through a sieve to create a smoother mash.
7. Slice the corn kernels from the corn cobs.
8. Return the mash back to a low heat and stir through the corn kernels and the butter.
9. Stir through the spring onion at the end. Now it's ready to serve.
For the chicken...
10. Cut 3 slices in the chicken breast through the length so that it flares out like a hand.11. Mix the flour, spices and some salt and pepper in a large plate and set aside.12. Beat the egg and put in another plate.
13. Pour the polenta into a plate and station the 3 plates near each other.
14. First dip the chicken in the flour and shake off the excess. Dip this into the egg and finally into the polenta to create an even polenta-coating.15. Heat a fry pan to medium-high with a bit of butter and some olive oil. Fry the chicken breasts for about 5min each side until cooked throughout and golden and crispy on the outside.16. Fry the bananas in the same pan until soft. I added some sugar and butter to caramelize.17. Serve the polenta chicken on a bed of sweetcorn mash with some relish on the side.


I really enjoyed this dish. The chicken on its own wasn't too remarkable. The coating was crunchy with a subtle corn-flavor. The chicken itself was so juicy and tender.

Chicken bite

I was really happy with our mashed potatoes but it did take a lot of effort. Mash always tastes good but the addition of corn gave it a nice textural surprise with each bite.


What surprised me was the relish. I only made it because it was part of the recipe. Normally, I wouldn't bother making something like this. In the end, it really brought the dish together, cutting through the creaminess of the potato mash.

I think that if the bananas had worked, it would've added an extra dimension to the dish as well. As they were, they were unripe and starchy and horrible.