Chicken thighs stuffed with apricot, cream cheese & thyme stuffing

Seasonal eating is so rewarding and this is one meal you could hang a medal on. In the height of summer, get some friends over and serve up this surprisingly easy and incredibly tasty meal. Central Otago summer fruits and veges from the garden..... yummo!

SERVES: 4

INGREDIENTS:

• 4 Chicken thighs (you can use breasts but thighs are tastier) more if you think one wont be enough- the farmer eats two
• 1/4 cup bread crumbs
• 100g cream cheese (I just use half a tub)
• 3 apricots chopped finely
• 2 Tblsp fresh thyme
• 2 strips of streaky bacon per thigh

METHOD:

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Place a sheet of plastic wrap on the work surface, put one chicken thigh folded out flat on the plastic and then cover with another piece of plastic wrap. Beat the hell out of it with a rolling pin until it is flattened out and approximately twice the size. Take the plastic wrap off and place to one side. Repeat for all of the thighs. Now mix the bread crumbs, cream cheese, apricots and thyme together in a bowl for the stuffing.
Cut a piece of tin foil for each piece of chicken (about 20cm lengths). On your first piece of tin foil place two strips of bacon and place a chicken thigh on top of them. Put a few heaped spoons of the stuffing mixture onto the chicken thigh and spread out. Then roll up the bacon, chicken and stuffing, leaving it wrapped in the tin foil like a little parcel. Fold up the ends to seal. Repeat for all of the chicken thighs. Bake for 40 minutes, turning over half way through. Unwrap the parcels and quickly brown the outside in a pan before serving.

TIPS:

• Serve with fresh seasonal veges and apricot sauce
• Nice with a good crisp Sauvignon Blanc