Creamy Chicken and Peppadew Souffle’s

I have been eyeing out these little gems for quite some time.  Again, I found the recipe from a magazine cut out, who knows where and who knows when.

Anyway I had some left over chicken from last night, so these little souffle’s, just had to happen! I have to admit, I was a bit nervous as souffle’s can be a little intimidating to say the least, but then again, thought, who cares? so long as they are scrumptious and a mouthful of deliciousness…it really does not matter what they look like, I mean, it is not as if the Queen was going to see them or eat them! Well, I have to admit, they were easy to do.  I am now over the fear of souffle’ making…and they were amazing, light and everything I had hoped for. I am now in souffle’ heaven!!!

You can also do a vegetarian version, which is equally as delicious, just substitute the chicken with mushrooms 🙂  Yummy !!!

Creamy Chicken and Peppadew Souffle’s

Preparation time:  35 minutes

Cooking time:  20 – 25 minutes plus an extra 15 minutes just before serving.

Total time:  1 hour 10 minutes – 1 hour

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

15 minutes

Ingredients:

120 gram butter

1/2 cup (125 milliliters) cake wheat flour

2 cups (500 milliliters) full cream milk

400 gram feta cheese, crumbled

160 gram peppadews

1 teaspoon (5 milliliters) ground nutmeg

freshly ground salt and black pepper

5 free-range jumbo-sized eggs, separated

spray ‘n cook or extra butter for greasing ramekins

To Serve:

2 cooked chicken breasts, shredded

4 spring onions, sliced

1 cup fresh cream (not whipped)

herbs and salad

Instructions:

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius / 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Grease your ramekins (I used 8 ramekins, which hold approximately 125 milliliters of liquid) Put a kitchen towel inside a large deep baking tray and place the greased ramekins into the baking tray and on the kitchen towel.

Now, in a medium-sized pot melt the butter over a medium heat.  Take the pot off the stove and add the flour, stir.  Put the pot back onto the stove and stir continuously for a few minutes.  Gradually add the milk, continue to stir until your white sauce is nice and smooth.  After several minutes your sauce will start to boil, don’t stop stirring. Eventually the sauce will thicken. Once this happens you can remove the pot from the heat.

Add the feta, peppadews and ground nutmeg.  Taste.  If you feel it needs a little more seasoning, do it ! If you feel it needs a bit more peppadew oomph, go for it !  More feta…. knock yourself out.  Remember, these are your souffle’s and they have to be great !!!

When you are happy with the flavour, remove one cup of the mixture and set aside. This will be used later, once cooled thoroughly.

Now whisk the egg yolks into the remainder of the sauce in the pot.  Set aside.

In a separate medium-sized bowl, whisk up the egg whites until stiff peaks form. Scoop out some of the egg whites and fold them through the sauce.  Do this in batches until all the egg whites are folded through. This process needs to be done quickly.

Yay!  Now the fun part 🙂 .

Fill the ramekins with the sauce.  Mine ended up being pretty full.  Pour boiling water into the deep baking tray with the filled ramekins in.  The water should come up at least halfway up the actual ramekins.

Carefully place the baking tray into the oven and allow to bake for about 20 – 25 minutes or until they are nicely puffed and golden in colour.

Once done, be really careful  and remove the baking tray with the ramekins from the oven. Set aside and let them cool slightly before turning them out.

About 15 minutes before serving, make sure your oven is heated at 200 degrees Celsius/ 390 degrees Fahrenheit.

Place the souffle’s carefully onto a heat-proof serving plate/platter.  This is when the reserved mixture is used. Mix the reserved mixture with the shredded chicken and spring onions. With a teaspoon, stack the chicken mixture on top of the cooked souffle’s.  Pour the cream over and bake in the oven for about 15 minutes until the chicken mixture on top of the souffle’s are heated through and a light golden brown.  The edges of the cream on the plate will brown, do not be alarmed, this is perfectly normal.

Serve hot with herbs and salad.

Enjoy 🙂