Cooking Competition! Bacon-wrapped Chicken Leg Roulade

My nephew is joining a cooking competition in a tertiary institution and he asked me for some help. I thought, what a great way to bond with him, and readily agreed. First, I have to say, I admire his guts for even daring to sign up for the competition. I would have been frightened to death! I like to continue to believe that cooking need not come with stress.

The must-use ingredients are 3 boneless chicken legs, one 300g turkey breast and 4 eggs. Is this even normal to cook 2 poultry meats in one dish?? We cracked our heads to think of a recipe that would work. Together with his cooking partner, we spent the afternoon discussing recipes and deciding on cooking techniques that would yield a good dish in 90 minutes. Here's what we came up with - Bacon-wrapped Chicken Leg Roulade - a rather sophisticated dish to my mind.

We cut the turkey breast into thin long strips and butterflied the chicken legs, meaning, slicing it horizontally so it opens like a book to get a nice flat slab of meat. After marinating them with salt, pepper and freshly chopped rosemary, we barded it. We laid out bacon strips on a piece of aluminium foil, each overlapping the other, placed the butterflied chicken leg across at the bottom of the strips and of the foil, arranged the turkey strips on top of the legs, and basically rolled everything in, with the foil.

Next, we poached the rolled up meat for 25 minutes at medium high heat.

How gorgeous is this!

We chilled the meat in the freezer for 20 minutes, then took them out to pan-sear till brown and aromatic.

We cut up the rolls and were greeted with these moist, juicy, pink-blushies. I suggested they poach another 5 minutes during the competition so as not to risk an uncooked meat which would mean an immediate elimination.

The boys did a Baked Sunny with the eggs, and presented this to family members for food tasting. Every single one said it was delish, from fussy eaters to those not particularly fond of meat. The bacon gave a salty, smoky crunch and offered a good contrast to the soft, moist poached meat.

I was impressed with the boys' efforts and their enthusiasm and was delighted to have been a part of it. I call this a good day in the office for myself.

Don't know if they have cleared the Qualifying Round but they are already winners in my mind.