Chicken St. James

How to make some sanjacobos or san Jacobos.

This meat recipe is one of those dishes that despite having disappeared from restaurant menus and menus years ago, continues to exist in the domestic repertoire of many houses.

It is one of those simple and rich recipes that many of us return to childhood.

Today I bring you a variation of the classic ham and cheese sanjacobo , a slightly more noble version to which we add the chicken, some chicken sanjacobos.

Maintaining the same essence as always, we prepared a book with chicken breast fillets that we filled with the classic cooked ham and cheese.

Like the most traditional recipe, we coat our booklet in egg, flour and breadcrumbs and fry.

In essence the recipe can not be easier or cheaper, and the result will make you suck your fingers both children and adults.

Preparation of the San Jacobos de pollo

1. In order for the meat to settle perfectly when preparing the sanjacobos, we place each of the fillets on a table, cover them with transparent paper and lightly mash them.
2. This way we will achieve a uniform thickness throughout the meat and a finer fillet.
3. Cook the two fillets on a work surface and season with salt and pepper.
4. On one of them we place the cooked ham and cheese trying not to protrude from the surface of the fillet to prevent the filling from coming out during frying.
5. We place the second fillet covering the previous one and the filling.
6. We pass the package first by flour and then by egg and breadcrumbs.
7. To get crispier St. James we can use crispy breadcrumbs that they sell in any supermarket or large area.

Frying and final presentation of the St. James

1. When we have all the sanjacobos ready we proceed with the frying. For frying we are interested in oils with a high smoke point that oxidize (burn) less.
2. This depends on the quality of the oil that we use, I recommend an extra soft virgin olive oil, for example an arbequina.
3. These oils will allow us to fry at high temperatures resulting in a crispy breading after a short process, so the interior will be juicier.
4. When we have all the chicken sanjacobos prepared, heat abundant oil in a frying pan and fry them at medium-high temperature.
5. Always in small batches so as not to excessively lower the oil temperature.
6. It is important that the oil is not very hot when frying, so we avoid that they are very toasted on the outside and raw on the inside. We cook them 2 minutes on each side.
7. We must regulate the temperature to avoid burning on the outside and not being done inside.
8. For this reason it is important that the fillets that we have put are finite.

We remove to a tray with kitchen paper to absorb the excess oil and we have them ready to eat. Yummy.

If you do not want to miss a single detail of this recipe for chicken san jacobos, you have step by step photos in this album.

Tips for some delicious Jacobs

• The secret to success will be the quality of the ingredients, a quality ham and a rich cheese, they will make the difference between a chicken sanjacobo and a yummy chicken sanjacobo .
• We serve the hot sanjacobos, accompanied with potatoes, white rice or a salad. Either way, it is a snack as simple as it is tasty.
• These sanjacobos are a simpler version of other dishes from the same family such as  flamenquins , simple booklets of loin , the proprietas, the cord bleu , a good  cachopo   or the Italian saltimbocca .