(no subject)

[freyakitten]

Tonights' dinner was a minor experiment of sorts. I roasted a chicken (A 1.4 kg chicken at $4? We are having roast chicken this weekend, whether it's convenient or not - both its legs were dislocated, but the wishbone was intact), but played around with the stuffing.

My roast chicken stuffing habitually contains bacon, sage (lots and lots), and enough breadcrumbs to make it all stick together, plus whatever ingredients I feel like adding - like walnut pieces, or pinenuts. Tonight I added mushrooms, onion, sherry, and garlic when pre-cooking it. Also, yesterday in the markets, a stall had some very very late home-grown figs for $10/kg (through fig season, they're usually $15-$20/kg). So I bought them and added them to the cooling pre-cooked stuffing.

Put the stuffing in the cleaned chicken (I refuse to put stuffing that I intend to eat in the insides of a chicken that I haven't cleaned all the little bits out of - I think they're kidneys, but I've never actually found out, although I know I really don't like the taste - where's the point in cooking something in a vessel which you aren't sure is clean?), eat the little bit left over (a fair bit more than usual, my estimations were significantly off - I put stuffing under the skin as well as in the cavity of the chicken, this time, and there were still spoonsful left over), place chicken in dish, add enough boiling water to cover two fingers, stick in preheated oven for an hour and three quarters (a little overcooked), take the chicken out and flay it, drain juices into a saucepan with a little dark soy sauce for colour, heat and thicken gravy and serve with random fresh vegetables.

It was a successful experiment. Tasty tasty stuff. And with such a large chicken, there's enough left for my lunch tomorrow. I must try this again next year, when figs are in season. I dislike fresh figs, but cooked ones are tasty.

Comments

[leatherman357.livejournal.com]

I understand what you mean about cleaning out the insides. But, then, I can't understand people who DON'T clean out the chicken before they stuff it. I usually rinse it out very well, then toss a little bit of salt inside. It brings out more of the juices for the stuffing.
By the way, that stuffing sounds fabulous!

[freyaw.livejournal.com]

To me, not cleaning the inside is like using commercial stuffing. You don't really know what's in there, and doing the opposite takes maybe five minutes more, and tastes so much better. I can't eat commercial stuffing, I've never been able to stomach enough of the taste to figure out if there's something I'll react to in it. *makes face* There's so much pre-fab food that makes me feel ill.

As I said, I dislike fresh figs, but as an ingredient in many cooked things, they make a very nice taste. Chopped up and used instead of sugar in fresh bread, mmmm... Like pomegranates - which plant I'm thinking about putting in my backyard, just so that I can make pomegranate chicken without going nuts trying to find the juice, or the whole fruit at reasonable prices - they go so well in so many things.

[velvetink.livejournal.com]

I always make my own stuffing too, yours sounds interesting, might try figs and pine nuts next time. :)