Espresso Testing on recyclerView fails

I am trying to do a simple test. Click on a position of the recyclerView and check if the text on a textview on a fragment is the correct one.

@RunWith(AndroidJUnit4.class)
public class AdapterClickPositionTest {

    @Rule
    public ActivityTestRule<ItemListActivity> activityTestRule = new ActivityTestRule<>(ItemListActivity.class);

    @Test
    public void clickItem(){
        onData(anything()).inAdapterView(withId(R.id.recipeRV)).atPosition(0).perform(click());

        onView(withId(R.id.stepTvShort)).check(matches(withText("Recipe Introduction")));
    }
}

i was expecting the test to pass but im getting the following error

Caused by: java.lang.RuntimeException: Action will not be performed because the target view does not match one or more of the following constraints: (is assignable from class: class android.widget.AdapterView and is displayed on the screen to the user)

    with id: com.example.bakingapp:id/recipeRV
at
android.support.test.espresso.PerformException$Builder.build(PerformException.java:82)
at android.support.test.espresso.base.DefaultFailureHandler.getUserFriendlyError(DefaultFailureHandler.java:79)
at android.support.test.espresso.base.DefaultFailureHandler.handle(DefaultFailureHandler.java:51)
at android.support.test.espresso.ViewInteraction.waitForAndHandleInteractionResults(ViewInteraction.java:312)
at android.support.test.espresso.ViewInteraction.desugaredPerform(ViewInteraction.java:173)
at android.support.test.espresso.ViewInteraction.perform(ViewInteraction.java:114)
at android.support.test.espresso.DataInteraction$DisplayDataMatcher$1.apply(DataInteraction.java:213)
at android.support.test.espresso.DataInteraction$DisplayDataMatcher$1.apply(DataInteraction.java:210)
at android.support.test.espresso.DataInteraction$DisplayDataMatcher.<init>(DataInteraction.java:230)
at android.support.test.espresso.DataInteraction$DisplayDataMatcher.<init>(DataInteraction.java:205)
at android.support.test.espresso.DataInteraction$DisplayDataMatcher.displayDataMatcher(DataInteraction.java:248)
at android.support.test.espresso.DataInteraction.makeTargetMatcher(DataInteraction.java:150)
at android.support.test.espresso.DataInteraction.perform(DataInteraction.java:135)
at com.example.bakingapp.AdapterClickPositionTest.clickItem(AdapterClickPositionTest.java:32)
at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Native Method)
at org.junit.runners.model.FrameworkMethod$1.runReflectiveCall(FrameworkMethod.java:50)
at org.junit.internal.runners.model.ReflectiveCallable.run(ReflectiveCallable.java:12)
at org.junit.runners.model.FrameworkMethod.invokeExplosively(FrameworkMethod.java:47)
at org.junit.internal.runners.statements.InvokeMethod.evaluate(InvokeMethod.java:17)
at android.support.test.rule.ActivityTestRule$ActivityStatement.evaluate(ActivityTestRule.java:527)
at org.junit.rules.RunRules.evaluate(RunRules.java:20)
at org.junit.runners.ParentRunner.runLeaf(ParentRunner.java:325)
at org.junit.runners.BlockJUnit4ClassRunner.runChild(BlockJUnit4ClassRunner.java:78)
at org.junit.runners.BlockJUnit4ClassRunner.runChild(BlockJUnit4ClassRunner.java:57)
at org.junit.runners.ParentRunner$3.run(ParentRunner.java:290)
at org.junit.runners.ParentRunner$1.schedule(ParentRunner.java:71)
at org.junit.runners.ParentRunner.runChildren(ParentRunner.java:288)
at org.junit.runners.ParentRunner.access$000(ParentRunner.java:58)
at org.junit.runners.ParentRunner$2.evaluate(ParentRunner.java:268)
at org.junit.runners.ParentRunner.run(ParentRunner.java:363)
at android.support.test.runner.AndroidJUnit4.run(AndroidJUnit4.java:101)
at org.junit.runners.Suite.runChild(Suite.java:128)
at org.junit.runners.Suite.runChild(Suite.java:27)
at org.junit.runners.ParentRunner$3.run(ParentRunner.java:290)
at org.junit.runners.ParentRunner$1.schedule(ParentRunner.java:71)
at org.junit.runners.ParentRunner.runChildren(ParentRunner.java:288)
at org.junit.runners.ParentRunner.access$000(ParentRunner.java:58)
at org.junit.runners.ParentRunner$2.evaluate(ParentRunner.java:268)
at org.junit.runners.ParentRunner.run(ParentRunner.java:363)
at org.junit.runner.JUnitCore.run(JUnitCore.java:137)
at org.junit.runner.JUnitCore.run(JUnitCore.java:115)
at android.support.test.internal.runner.TestExecutor.execute(TestExecutor.java:56)
at android.support.test.runner.AndroidJUnitRunner.onStart(AndroidJUnitRunner.java:384)
at android.app.Instrumentation$InstrumentationThread.run(Instrumentation.java:2145)
Caused by: java.lang.RuntimeException: Action will not be performed because the target view does not match one or more of the following constraints:
(is assignable from class: class android.widget.AdapterView and is displayed on the screen to the user)
Target view: "RecyclerView{id=2131296417, res-name=recipeRV, visibility=VISIBLE, width=1536, height=1776, has-focus=true, has-focusable=true, has-window-focus=true, is-clickable=false, is-enabled=true, is-focused=false, is-focusable=true, is-layout-requested=false, is-selected=false, layout-params=android.widget.FrameLayout$LayoutParams@4f9b05b, tag=null, root-is-layout-requested=false, has-input-connection=false, x=0.0, y=0.0, child-count=4}"
at android.support.test.espresso.ViewInteraction.doPerform(ViewInteraction.java:245)
at android.support.test.espresso.ViewInteraction.access$100(ViewInteraction.java:63)
at android.support.test.espresso.ViewInteraction$1.call(ViewInteraction.java:153)
at android.support.test.espresso.ViewInteraction$1.call(ViewInteraction.java:150)
at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.run(FutureTask.java:266)
at android.os.Handler.handleCallback(Handler.java:873)
at android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage(Handler.java:99)
at android.os.Looper.loop(Looper.java:193)
at android.app.ActivityThread.main(ActivityThread.java:6669)
at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Native Method)
at com.android.internal.os.RuntimeInit$MethodAndArgsCaller.run(RuntimeInit.java:493)
at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit.main(ZygoteInit.java:858)