Chicken Balmoral (haggis stuffed chicken)

haggis stuffed chicken Balmoral on plate with sides behind

5 from 3 votes

Chicken Balmoral (haggis stuffed chicken)

This haggis stuffed chicken breast is an easy and elegant way to enjoy a taste of Scotland, especially served with creamy whisky sauce.

Prep Time15

Cook Time40

Total Time55

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: Scottish

Servings:

Calories: 889kcal

Author: Caroline's Cooking

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Ingredients

For chicken

2 chicken breasts (2 chicken breasts total approx 1lb/450g)
3 oz haggis approx
6 slices smoked bacon or less if larger (see notes)

For sauce

1 tablespoon Scottish whisky
¼ cup stock beef best, but chicken also works
½ cup heavy cream double cream
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
½ teaspoon honey optional, but I find works well

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

To prepare chicken

Preheat the oven to 350F/180C.
Trim off any fat or fibrous bits from the chicken then lay them flat on a cutting board. Using a small, sharp knife, make a slit on one side and move it around a little up and down inside, without cutting through the other side, to form a pocket. The opening can be small or larger, as suits, but around 2in/5cm works quite well. Use your hands to help open up the pocket evenly, as needed.
Take around half of the haggis and stuff it inside the pocket in the chicken breast, pressing it up and down either end of the gap. Press the top and bottom together a little then take pieces of bacon and wrap them around the chicken, with the ends joining underneath, as far as possible. repeat with other chicken breast.
Warm a skillet/frying pan over a medium-high heat and sear the bacon onto the chicken on the bottom, and sear briefly on the top. Transfer to a baking dish. Sometimes, this shrinks the bacon so that curls away from the chicken - if so, use a cocktail stick to help hold the bacon in place.
Transfer the chicken to the oven and bake for around 30 - 40 minutes until the chicken is cooked through (it should feel firm and you may see some white juices appear at the bottom). Meanwhile, make the sauce.

For whisky sauce

I find it works well to use the same skillet as for searing the chicken, just wipe it clean, but you can also use a separate small skillet/frying pan or pan. Gently warm the skillet/pan and then remove from the heat or turn it off.
Add the whisky, let it sizzle slightly then carefully light it with a blowtorch or match (take extreme care, as the flames can be high - do NOT lean over the pan and light only on the edge, quickly moving hand away). Let the flames burn off the alcohol and naturally die down.
Once flames have stopped, return to the heat and add the stock and cream. Stir in the mustard. Warm over a medium-low heat to come to a simmer. Simmer for a few minutes to gently thicken the sauce. Stir through the honey, if using, and serve over the chicken.

Video

Notes

You can use back (Canadian style) bacon or streaky (regular US bacon) as you prefer or have. If you use back bacon, you may only need 2 slices/rashers per piece of chicken. You want to cover most of the chicken, at least over the open part.

You may not need all of the sauce here, but any extra is great with other dishes too - you can serve it with haggis on it's own, chicken, even steak. You can cool it, store in the fridge then gently re-heat when needed (keeps around 2-3 days).

Nutritional info is even more approximate than usual in part as while it does include haggis, it can vary greatly. It also includes all of the sauce, though as I say you likely won't need all. If you can't find haggis, consider making my simplified haggis - this uses a around ⅛ of the full recipe.

Nutrition