Chicken Roulade

Instructions

• 1
  Before you start deboning the chicken, melt a tablespoon of butter in a pan. Once it foams, pour in the eggs beaten with a pinch of salt and stir over medium heat for about a minute or two until the eggs set and you have scrambled eggs. Don't dry them out unnecessarily; there's no need to turn them into a crust. Mix the scrambled eggs with the frozen peas and turn them out onto a plate to cool. Do not thaw the peas beforehand; there are few of them, and they will thaw in the residual heat of the eggs.
• 2
  Debone the chicken and leave it on the cutting board skin side down. If you feel the surface of the meat is too bumpy and uneven, cover the chicken with foil or a cut-open plastic bag and gently pound it with a mallet. Preheat the oven to 190 degrees.
• 3
  Mix the cooled eggs with the chopped stale bread. Salt the surface of the chicken with a pinch of salt and lay slices of ham on top. Where the chicken breasts are, spread the stuffing, and then roll it uncompromisingly into the meat, leaving the thigh part of the meat on the outside. Cut about 1 meter of kitchen string and tie a firm and tight loop at one end of the roulade. Then wrap the roulade at roughly two-centimeter intervals, don't be afraid to tighten the string. The meat will shrink and render in the oven, so make sure the loops don't loosen. At the end of the roulade, tie the end of the string to the previous loop in any way, don't worry, even a simple knot won't come undone easily.
• 4
  Brush the surface of the roulade with the remaining butter and salt with the remaining salt. Place in a baking dish, do not cover, put in the oven, and leave to its fate for 30 minutes.
• 5
  After 30 minutes, the chicken will start to color, and drippings will form in the baking dish. To get the sauce, now pour 200 ml of water over the meat. Bake for another 30 minutes, jumping to the oven every 10 minutes to baste the meat with the drippings and check if there is enough, adding a little more water if necessary. Basting the meat will make it brown more nicely and also improve the flavor of the drippings.
• 6
  Just before the meat is done, melt butter in a small saucepan. Add flour to the foamed butter and stir with a spoon or small whisk over medium heat for several minutes until the roux turns light brown. You may need to gradually reduce the heat to prevent the roux from burning too much.
• 7
  Remove the baked roulade from the oven along with the baking dish. Transfer the roulade to a plate or cutting board and strain the drippings over the roux. Stir thoroughly immediately. If you end up with something between putty and glue, it means there was too little liquid in the baking dish, so add 100-150 ml of water to the saucepan, which should create a consistency much closer to a sauce. Let it simmer gently for at least 15 minutes (20 is better), stirring occasionally and adding a splash of evaporated water if necessary. To prevent the chicken roulade from cooling in the meantime, return it to the empty baking dish and place it in the turned-off oven, where it will finish cooking and become tender.
• 8
  Season the sauce with salt and pepper; it shouldn't need anything else.
• 9
  Remove the string from the roulade and slice it into centimeter-thick slices with a sharp knife. Serve with boiled potatoes or rice, drizzling with the sauce.