Flying Jacob (Lighter Swedish Chicken Bake)
A friendlier take on Sweden's gloriously odd 1970s classic — baked chicken with banana, a little smoky bacon and a creamy chilli sauce, scattered with peanuts. Same wild, addictive flavour, a lot less of the heavy cream.
Best for high-protein · fun retro remake · family dinner
Flygande Jacob — literally "Flying Jacob" — is one of those recipes people can't quite believe exists until they taste it. Invented in 1976 by a man who worked in air freight (hence the name), it throws chicken, banana, bacon, whipped cream, chilli sauce and peanuts into one dish and somehow makes it work. This is my lighter version for everyday cooking: crème fraîche stands in for the pile of whipped cream, the bacon is dialled back to just enough for smokiness, and the peanuts become a crunchy finishing scatter rather than a whole cupful. The banana still melts into the warm, mildly spicy sauce the way it should — that sweet-savoury-spicy combination is the whole point, so it stays. Serve it over wholegrain rice with a big crisp salad and enjoy the double-takes.
Ingredients
- 600 g chicken breast or thigh fillets , cut into strips
- 10 ml olive oil
- 80 g smoked bacon , diced
- 2 banana , sliced
- 250 ml light crème fraîche
- 60 ml chilli sauce , sriracha or sweet chilli, to taste
- 15 g tomato paste , for colour and depth
- 3 g fine sea salt , to taste
- 1 g black pepper , freshly ground
- 240 g wholegrain rice , dry, to serve
- 40 g roasted peanuts , roughly chopped, to finish
- 5 g chives or parsley , chopped, to finish (optional – can be omitted)
- 200 g mixed salad , to serve
Instructions
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1
Heat the oven to 225°C (435°F) and get the wholegrain rice cooking per the packet so it's ready at the end.
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2
Season the chicken strips with salt and pepper and brown them in the oil in a hot pan, in batches so they colour rather than steam, then transfer to an ovenproof dish.
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3
In the same pan, fry the diced bacon until just crisp, then scatter it over the chicken along with the sliced banana.
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4
Stir together the crème fraîche, chilli sauce and tomato paste, taste for heat, then spoon it evenly over the chicken, banana and bacon.
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5
Bake in the middle of the oven until bubbling and lightly golden and the chicken is cooked through.
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6
Scatter the chopped peanuts and chives over the top and serve straight from the dish with the wholegrain rice and a big crisp salad on the side.