Chicken and Feta Loaf
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Serves: 8 to 10 portions
 

Cut and ready to eat

Ingredients
INGREDIENTS FOR SPICY SAUCE (This sauce is quite punchy which I like ... if you need more sweetening add a touch more maple syrup)
  • 3 tbls tomato paste
  • 3 tbls balsamic vinegar
  • 3 tbls pure maple syrup
  • 2 tsp Sriracha Chili Sauce, or sweet chili sauce for mild flavour
  • 1 tsp sea salt flakes, or ½ tsp fine sea salt
  • Freshly ground pepper, to taste
INGREDIENTS FOR CHICKEN AND FETA LOAF
  • 200g bread of choice, preferably a little stale, cut into chunks (I used spelt sourdough)
  • 3 small to medium garlic cloves, peeled (if large use only 2)
  • 4 spring onions, trimmed and chopped into chunks
  • Zest of 1 lemon (keep juice for later)
  • 20g fresh basil leaves
  • 20g fresh parsley
  • 60g fresh baby spinach leaves
  • 2 whole eggs
  • 100g full fat cream
  • 50g lemon juice (from the lemon you have zested)
  • 1 kg chicken mince
  • 2 tbls capers (pitted olives or gherkin would work well too)
  • 200g feta cheese, crumbled into large pieces
  • 2 tsp sea salt flakes
  • freshly cracked pepper
Instructions
METHOD FOR SPICY SAUCE
  1. Mix all the ingredients together in a glass bowl … some will be drizzled over loaf before baking, and store unused portion in the fridge to use later.
METHOD FOR CHICKEN LOAF
  1. Grease the ends of a loaf tin (I used one with a 21cm x 11cm base measurement) and place a piece of baking paper across the middle allowing the ends to extend beyond the rim of the tin (this will make it easier to remove when it is cooked) … place onto baking sheet ready for the oven
  2. Preheat oven to 180 degrees fan forced and place rack into middle of oven
  3. Make the spicy sauce if you haven’t already done so … put aside
  4. Place bread into TM bowl and chop 10 seconds / speed 8
  5. Set aside in a large mixing bowl, do not clean TM bowl
  6. Place garlic, spring onions, lemon zest, basil and parsley in TM bowl and chop 3 seconds / speed 7
  7. Add to bread mix, do not clean TM bowl
  8. Place spinach in TM bowl and shred 1-2 seconds / reverse / speed 5 (check after a second and repeat if you wish it to be finer but you do want some length in the shreds for colour in the loaf)
  9. Add to bread mix, do not clean TM bowl
  10. Place eggs, cream and lemon juice to TM bowl and mix 4 seconds / speed 4
  11. Add to bread mix along with chicken and capers and lightly mix through (use your hands to mix together, being careful not to squeeze or overwork the mix, allowing some chunks to remain)
  12. Add the feta and seasoning and again mix lightly through chicken (leaving chunks though the mix)
  13. Place mixture into loaf tin pushing it into the base and sides, and level the top
  14. Drizzle over some of the spicy sauce mix and bake for 1 hour (cooking time will depend on the size of your tin, and therefore the depth of your loaf … so check it after 50 minutes … if you have a food thermometer you are looking for an internal temperature of 65C degrees … it took exactly 1 hour in my oven)
  15. Remove from oven and allow to rest for 30 minutes before cutting and serving, or allow to cool for 30 minutes before wrapping in Alfoil if serving cold later.
Notes
This loaf can be served hot or cold so is great for a picnic, and leftovers are delicious for sandwiches the next day.

If you are going to serve it cold allow it to cool for 30 minutes, then wrap in Alfoil and put into the fridge to cool completely. Leave sealed until you are ready to serve.

The spicy sauce is drizzled over the loaf before baking to add flavour and colour, and there will be a little extra leftover to serve with the cooked loaf.
Recipe by The Passionate Pantry at https://www.thepassionatepantry.com.au/chicken-and-feta-loaf/