Boneless chicken breast stuffed with spinach, shrimp and cream cheese finished with a coconut sweet chili sauce. Well that’s a mouthful, not only to say, but when you bite into it, a flavor explosion.
Using all local ingredients, combining and preparing to maximize their potential, each one of these ingredients gets prepared separately, then brought together to create this dish.
SHRIMP PREP
• Marinate the shrimp in garlic and Jimmy Ts Cajun spice (available at Jimmy Ts or online)
• Grill the shrimp to fully cooked and remove the tail section. Chop into bite size pieces
• Slice garlic and gather fresh spinach leaves
• Sauté sliced garlic until golden brown, add fresh spinach leaves, salt and pepper. Splash with rice wine vinegar, enough to create steam, and cook the spinach. Remove from heat and squeeze dry when cool.
CHICKEN PREP
• Butterfly open your chicken breast and press so it is an even surface. Season generously with salt, pepper and Cajun.
• Add the spinach to cover the flesh of the chicken, not too much, just a layer. Add chopped cooked shrimp in a line down the middle, and finally a tablespoon of cream cheese spread to cover the shrimp and spinach.
BAKE
• Take a piece of aluminum foil about 8 inches in length and layout. Take the chicken breast and roll it up to ensure you’ve evenly distributed the stuffing.
• Place the roll on the foil, then wrap the foil around the chicken and twist the ends tightly, securing the chicken inside
• Place in a casserole dish and bake in a 350 degree oven for 30 minutes, until the chicken is cooked through.
• Safely unwrap from the foil and add to a plate.
SAUCE
• While it is cooking, make the sauce.
• Sauté sliced garlic, add half a can of coconut milk, a tablespoon of sweet chili sauce, then remove from heat.
• Reheat when ready to serve the food.
Happy eating
Chef Jimmy T
As a former chef on a megayacht, Jimmy T’s owner Jimmy Tancrell, often had difficulty finding local suppliers who could provide the foodstuffs and condiments necessary for the gourmet meals expected by his clients. During long days at sea under star-filled skys, the crew and staff would talk about their dreams of ‘life after yachting’. And for Jimmy Tancrell a dream was born … to provide a service for other ‘yachty’ chefs who were in the same boat as Jimmy so far as the need for adequately stocking their galleys with condiments, spices, good beef, fresh vegetables, fruits and cheeses.
Life after yachting led him to Los Suenos at Herradura on Costa Rica’s Central Pacific coast where Jimmy had already discovered the year ’round availability of wonderful fresh fruits and vegetables offered on Fridays at Jaco’s Mercado Movil or farmers market. A store became available dockside at Los Suenos and Jimmy T’s Provisions and Gourmet foods opened in May 2007.
Jimmy T’s Provisions & Gourmet Foods • Los Suenos Marina Shop • 011-506-2637-8636 • Cell (Costa Rica) 8682-7090