You know what? I’d never stuffed a chicken before.
As I’ve mentioned previously, my Chinese mother used her oven for storing plates, so we never had roasts or homemade cakes. That certainly isn’t a complaint, as mum more than made up for it with the most amazing meals. But a roast chicken, well, it just wasn’t culturally congruous.
So despite my friend Ellen’s misgivings (“you can’t blog about stuffing a chook!”), here is my first attempt. We roasted the chicken in our Römertopf baker and, as always, were completely delighted with the results.
Ingredients: shallots (you could use onions, I just had these on hand), organic garlic, fresh sage leaves from the garden and leftover sourdough bread…and an egg.
1. Soak the clay pot in a sink full of cold water for at least 15 minutes. Tear the bread into large pieces and food process into large crumbs.
2. Chop the shallots and garlic, then fry them briefly in a little oil to soften. Add them to the breadcrumbs, finely chopped sage and egg, and mix the stuffing together to form a moist paste. Season with a little salt and pepper. You might need to squelch it together with a clean hand.
3. Loosely stuff the cavity of a prepared chicken – ours was a large free-range bird, weighing in at about 1.6kg.
4. Lay scrubbed and halved potatoes over the base of the presoaked baker. Scatter over some extra garlic cloves and any leftover stuffing.
5. Remove any excess fat, then rub the chicken all over with a little olive oil, a little caramelised balsamic vinegar (optional), salt and freshly ground black pepper. Sit it breast side down on top of the potatoes. You might need to adjust the spuds a bit, depending on the size of your bird. The nice thing about the clay baker is that you really only need to add the tiniest bit of oil – the chicken will mostly baste in its own juices, flavouring the other ingredients as it does so.
Note that the potatoes will boil and bake in the rendered fat and juices, so don’t be surprised if there’s a lot of liquid at the base after the chicken is cooked. And don’t panic, it’s not all fat, most of it is chicken stock which hasn’t evaporated because the pot is sealed. Just lift the cooked potatoes out with a slotted spoon at the end.
6. Put the lid on the clay baker, and place it into a cold oven. Turn the temperature to 200C with fan and allow the pot to bake for one and a half hours. Remove the lid and allow it to roast for another half an hour or until golden brown and cooked through.
One roast chicken comfortably feeds all four of us, with nothing left over. Small Man eats the drumsticks and wings, Big Boy eats the thighs and a little of the breast meat, Pete eats the rest of the breast and I get the wonderfully bony backbone with all the bits of offal stuck to it!
Yes you can! Uhm, stuffing a chook and blogging about it that is. I’ve also never stuffed one before, so thanks for this post.
And glad to know that I’m not the only one who loves the bony backbone section of a chook! In my household, mr foodwink takes the wings and one drumstick. I get the other drumstick and the backbone bit. Breast meat is usually for lunch the next day. The dog gets the neck and other odd pieces. Haha, nothing goes into waste. In true Chinese style :)
p/s: you’re making me hungry.
Hehe..so true, Wink, it is very Chinese not to waste. I eat the neck too! The backbone is the best bit, that family of mine have no idea what they’re missing.. :)
Like it. Very much. I need to get a Romertopf…soon! Everytime I roast chicken I expect it to last so I can rustle up things with the leftovers – fat chance!
In our house, Andrew eats whatever is left after the kids and I take (our relatively small) choice of pieces. I think he has no limit to the amount of chicken he can eat, particularly roast chicken. I find his eating of these quantities rather disgusting. I am sure I won’t cope when my kids are teenagers and join him in this carnivorous activity! The backbone usually goes into a stock pot with wing bits and anything the kids have left untouched on their plates, along with some vegies – to make stock and get the most of the expensive organic chook!
Interesting- your stuffing is very simple. I use my mother’s recipe which includes onions, celery, parsley, sausage, bread cubes, butter, walnuts, and giblets, sage, thyme. I actually would rather eat it just as soon as I stir everything together than when it gets all wet and baked in the bird. In fact, I make it the day before- eat it for breakfast and lunch and then stuff the chicken/turkey and bake it for the rest of the family.
I love your clay baker- I think this was a very good post- thanks for sharing your ‘stuffed chook”!
When you cannot be bothered with a stuffing, put a whole lemon in there, pricked all over and add a couple of bay leaves for good measure. Roz
Oz, it never happens does it? There’s a pile of clean bones after we roast a chicken.. :)
Spice Girl, the organic chooks are too rich for my blood – can’t bring myself to pay the $25 – $30 each! The new Inghams free range ones that our butcher is stocking are very nice, much nicer IMO than the Lilydales.
Heidi, your stuffing some divine. Is it cooked before it goes into the bird? I tried to buy giblets today, but the butcher said they never stock that sort of thing anymore, I have to go to a specialist chicken store. The clay baker is an absolute treasure, I’m quite besotted with it!
Roz, thank you – I have heard of doing that before. Does it make the chicken lemony though?
Celia,
The giblets come with the roasters here- and you can buy them at the supermarket for less than a dollar a pound.
And,yes it is all cooked, I add about 3 cups of chicken broth to moisten the mix and then heat it in the microwave by the bowl- when I’m just eating the stuffing, that is.
Heidi
I grew up on chicken giblets – now you’ve mentioned them, I shall have to go on a quest to find some… :)
It is assumed here that you would always take the giblets (and everything else) from the chicken. I am the strange one in the butchers that says that she doesn’t want them!
What a shame they don’t do that here any more! I shall have to go and find some this week…
Hehe your mum reminds me of Carrie Bradshaw who never used her oven too! I must admit my mum’s is so full of baking trays, it takes a while to clear them all out so I suppose she rarely uses it too :P
Celia, I was so inspired that I created a new stuffing for the chicken tonight. Dinner was a success, I even made gravy which I frequently cut out. After dinner I was cleaning up the kitchen bench and saw a jar of pistachios, oh my god I forgot to serve the stuffing! Oh well lunch tomorrow I know what is on the menu, the fillets and the stuffing. Also the orange gloves got a work out tonight. Roz
Hahaha…that’s too funny, Roz! But fillets and stuffing sound like a perfect lunch – I would just eat stuffing if I could. I made roast chicken as well tonight, but I was lazy and just through the whole bird in the Romertopf and went to help Small Man with his homework.. :)