Savoury Chicken and Vegetable Pancakes

This is a recipe that mum used many times when I was a kid. It’s a classic Woman’s Weekly dish, easy and tasty. Baking them at the end is key – it melts the cheese and gives a roasted nut accent to the whole thing. I’ve used this recipe and omitted the chicken and it was still good. You can make the pancakes ahead of time.

Ingredients

For the pancakes:

  • 1 cup plain flour
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 1/2 cup of milk

For the filling:

  • 3 chicken breasts
  • 1 bunch of parsley
  • 1 small onion
  • ½ cup of white wine
  • ⅓ cup of water
  • 5 black peppercorns
  • 30g butter
  • 1½ tablespoons of flour
  • 1/4 cup of cream
  • 1 teaspoon of dijon mustard
  • 1 stick celery
  • 2 carrots
  • 15g butter, extra

For the topping:

  • 1 1/2 cup of grated cheese
  • 1/2 cup of roasted walnuts

Method

Add the flour, eggs and milk in a bowl and beat until the batter is smooth.

Add a dot of butter to a pan on medium heat and cook the pancakes, setting aside on a plate when done.

Preheat the oven to 180C.

For the filling, finely slice the onions and roughly chop the parsley and add them to a small casserole dish. Thinly slice the carrots and celery and set aside.

Add the chicken breasts, peppercorns, white wine and water.

Cover the casserole and bake in the oven for 20 minutes.

Take the casserole out of the oven, remove the chicken breast and set it on a chopping board and slice it thinly. Set aside.

Strain the liquid from the casserole and reserve.

Melt butter in a pan and add the sliced carrot and celery and sautee for 3 minutes. Remove the carrot and celery.

Add a spot of butter to the pan and then the flour. Mix until it becomes a paste and cook on a low heat for 2 minutes.

Add the reserved juices from the casserole dish and the cream and stir to combine. Add a splash of warm water if the sauce is too thick.

Add the sliced chicken, carrots and celery and stir to combine.

Assemble the pancakes by adding spoonfulls of filling to the centre of each pancake and rolling it up.

Place side-by-side in a baking dish.

Sprinkle the cheese and walnuts over the top.

Bake in the 180C oven for 20 minutes.