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Barbecued chicken breast with sauce vierge and potato puree

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Twilight delight: Barbecued chicken breast with sauce vierge and potato puree.
Twilight delight: Barbecued chicken breast with sauce vierge and potato puree.William Meppem

At your next evening barbecue, let tomato, fresh garden herbs and velvety potato take chicken to a new taste dimension.

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Ingredients

  • 4 x 180g boneless chicken breasts, skin on

  • sea salt

  • extra virgin olive oil

For sauce vierge

  • 3 vine-ripened tomatoes

  • 2 garlic cloves, peeled and halved

  • 2 tbsp chopped chervil

  • 2 tbsp chopped flat-leaf parsley

  • 1 tbsp chopped tarragon

  • 8 coriander seeds, crushed

  • 1 cup extra virgin olive oil

  • sea salt and freshly ground pepper

For potato puree

  • 600g bintje potatoes, peeled and cut into 2-3cm dice

  • 5 garlic cloves, peeled

  • sea salt

  • 150ml milk, warmed

  • 150g unsalted butter, finely diced

  • freshly ground pepper

  • 1/2 lemon

Method

  1. For the sauce vierge, remove stalks from tomatoes and plunge them into boiling water for several seconds. Refresh in iced water and peel off skin with a knife. Cut into quarters, deseed and scoop out the pulp with a spoon, and cut into 2cm dice. Mix diced tomato with all other ingredients in a bowl, then set aside for 1-2 hours.

    For potato puree, put potato in a bamboo steamer, add garlic and steam for about 1 hour, or until the potato is cooked. When done, pass the potato and garlic through a food mill, then place in a saucepan over medium heat and stir with a wooden spoon for 1 minute until potato begins to steam. Add a little salt and, while stirring continuously, pour in milk. Add butter a bit at a time and stir until purée is smooth. Add pepper, check salt and squeeze lemon into the purée and stir. Set aside while you cook the chicken.

    Preheat barbecue. Sprinkle chicken with sea salt and brush with extra virgin olive oil. Cook on grill for 8 minutes skin side down, then turn and cook for 4 minutes. Remove and rest in a warm place for 10 minutes. Put chicken on plates, spoon over sauce, place a dollop of purée on the side and serve.

    HOT TIPS

    • Use any leftover sauce vierge on breakfast sausages with wilted spinach and sourdough toast - heaven!

    • If you want to go the extra mile with the potato puree, push it through a sieve. You won't be disappointed.

     

    SOMETHING TO DRINK

    Pinot noir
    The vibrant acidity, red cherry fruit and well-balanced oak of Seresin's 2009 Leah Pinot Noir ($40), which hails from New Zealand's Marlborough region, will ensure the barbecue flavour is carried on.

    Photography by William Meppem. Styling by Hannah Meppem. Food preparation by Kirsten Jenkins

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