heather_in_sf
Well-known member
One of my favorite chicken treatments (sounds like a spa huh!), from Cafe Beaujolais in the good ole days. I was lucky enough to eat the real deal and her recipes are all true to the flavors.
At the farmers market yesterday I picked up the most gorgeous bunch of chard with gold/orange stems and veins, it was so ALIVE and abundant! I also found an adorable box of baby shitakes, they were still weaning they were so wee - a shame to chop them really... Plus baby ciopolini onions, like fat fat green onions with that wonderful sweetness and no burn. Here is the recipe as written by Margaret Fox and my tweaks are in parens.
Chicken Stuffed under the Skin
1 whole chicken, 2 1/2 - 3 lbs (mine was 5)
1 cup finely chopped onions (1 bunch baby ciopolini onions, halved and sliced, greens included)
3 T olive oil
1 1/3 cups grated vegetables, e.g. zucchini, eggplant, mushrooms or a combination, grate before using (1 bunch of chard, stemmed and chopped, 1 1/2 cups baby shitake mushrooms, roughly chopped)
4 cloves garlic, minced (while the chard was wilting I leaned over the hot pan and grated in the garlic using my microplane - cooking and aromatherapy combined!)
1/2 t Beaujolais Blend Herbs or oregano (alas no longer available, so I used Mural of Flavor from Penzeys)
1/8 t finely ground pepper
12 oz cream cheese or goat cheese - she prefers California Chevre, or a combo of the two (I used a log of Laura Chenel goat plus a little cream cheese to add up to 12 oz)
1 egg
1 egg yolk (do not try to separate the egg over the trash bag, one tends to drop the whole egg in there accidentally, TWICE!)
1/2 c grated parmesan or dry jack or asiago
Step 1: Make cream cheese mixture: mix cream/goat cheese, eggs, dry cheese together and set aside (use a mixer if you want, I don't).
Step 2: Cook vegetables: saute onions in oil with salt over medium heat for 5 minutes or until translucent. Add grated vegetables, garlic, herbs and pepper. turn up the heat and cook until just tender (~5-10 min). Scrape into a strainer and let liquid drip out - save for soup - pressing occasionally to help things along.
Add veggies to cheese mixture and blend thoroughly, chill for an hour (I didn't).
Stuff the chicken: remove giblets and wash well and dry. cut out backbone and press on breast bone to flatten, tuck in wings. Carefully with your fingers from the thigh side loosen the skin under the thighs, legs, breast. Put stuffing mixture in a pastry bag with a wide tip (or a zippy bag, squeeze out the air and snip a 1/2" hole in the end). Stuff chicken and evenly pat the stuffing over the chicken. Place in a 10x15 baking pan. It can be refrigerated at this point for roasting later in the day. (I sliced a pound of baby potatoes and a sweet onion in rings over the bottom of the pan with a little duck fat from the freezer)
Roast at 375 for 1 hour and 10 minutes. Let rest 5-10 minutes and cut into 4 servings. (Since my chicken was much, much larger I roasted it at 425 - first sprinkling the top with olive oil, juice of a lemon, salt and pepper and more Mural of Flavor herbs, and added 1/2 cup of very hot water to the pan. In my stupid oven it took 1 hour and 20 minutes. The skin was super crispy and brown, the meat was so tender and juicy and the stuffing, well, let's just say this poor chicken didn't have a chance and got eaten entirely before I could even grab the camera and take a picture!! My friends were like wolves.)
This is also a great picnic dish, messy but so good.
At the farmers market yesterday I picked up the most gorgeous bunch of chard with gold/orange stems and veins, it was so ALIVE and abundant! I also found an adorable box of baby shitakes, they were still weaning they were so wee - a shame to chop them really... Plus baby ciopolini onions, like fat fat green onions with that wonderful sweetness and no burn. Here is the recipe as written by Margaret Fox and my tweaks are in parens.
Chicken Stuffed under the Skin
1 whole chicken, 2 1/2 - 3 lbs (mine was 5)
1 cup finely chopped onions (1 bunch baby ciopolini onions, halved and sliced, greens included)
3 T olive oil
1 1/3 cups grated vegetables, e.g. zucchini, eggplant, mushrooms or a combination, grate before using (1 bunch of chard, stemmed and chopped, 1 1/2 cups baby shitake mushrooms, roughly chopped)
4 cloves garlic, minced (while the chard was wilting I leaned over the hot pan and grated in the garlic using my microplane - cooking and aromatherapy combined!)
1/2 t Beaujolais Blend Herbs or oregano (alas no longer available, so I used Mural of Flavor from Penzeys)
1/8 t finely ground pepper
12 oz cream cheese or goat cheese - she prefers California Chevre, or a combo of the two (I used a log of Laura Chenel goat plus a little cream cheese to add up to 12 oz)
1 egg
1 egg yolk (do not try to separate the egg over the trash bag, one tends to drop the whole egg in there accidentally, TWICE!)
1/2 c grated parmesan or dry jack or asiago
Step 1: Make cream cheese mixture: mix cream/goat cheese, eggs, dry cheese together and set aside (use a mixer if you want, I don't).
Step 2: Cook vegetables: saute onions in oil with salt over medium heat for 5 minutes or until translucent. Add grated vegetables, garlic, herbs and pepper. turn up the heat and cook until just tender (~5-10 min). Scrape into a strainer and let liquid drip out - save for soup - pressing occasionally to help things along.
Add veggies to cheese mixture and blend thoroughly, chill for an hour (I didn't).
Stuff the chicken: remove giblets and wash well and dry. cut out backbone and press on breast bone to flatten, tuck in wings. Carefully with your fingers from the thigh side loosen the skin under the thighs, legs, breast. Put stuffing mixture in a pastry bag with a wide tip (or a zippy bag, squeeze out the air and snip a 1/2" hole in the end). Stuff chicken and evenly pat the stuffing over the chicken. Place in a 10x15 baking pan. It can be refrigerated at this point for roasting later in the day. (I sliced a pound of baby potatoes and a sweet onion in rings over the bottom of the pan with a little duck fat from the freezer)
Roast at 375 for 1 hour and 10 minutes. Let rest 5-10 minutes and cut into 4 servings. (Since my chicken was much, much larger I roasted it at 425 - first sprinkling the top with olive oil, juice of a lemon, salt and pepper and more Mural of Flavor herbs, and added 1/2 cup of very hot water to the pan. In my stupid oven it took 1 hour and 20 minutes. The skin was super crispy and brown, the meat was so tender and juicy and the stuffing, well, let's just say this poor chicken didn't have a chance and got eaten entirely before I could even grab the camera and take a picture!! My friends were like wolves.)
This is also a great picnic dish, messy but so good.