As a young child growing up on a farm in New Zealand chicken was a treat that we got maybe 3 or 4 times a year. Mostly on birthdays and at Christmas time a roast chicken with home made stuffing (farce) was trotted out and we all fought over the parson’s nose.
Fast forward to modern times and supermarkets and corner stores have roast chickens hot and ready to go at inexpensive prices, so the allure of the roast chook has faded somewhat. There are however ways to jazz up the humble chicken to something approaching gourmet, and with a large chicken you can feed a lot of people. Here is my take on “fancy” chicken, a beautiful Ballotine with a delicious farce.
Chicken Ballotine
Will feed 8 to 10 people, for a smaller chicken use only 500 grams of farce mince
Ingredients:
One large chicken (2-2 to 2-4 kg) boned
2 chicken leg fillets or 4 chicken thighs
500 grams pork mince, 500 grams chicken mince
1 cup chopped parsley, 1 cup chopped herbs, sage basil and thyme are good
1 cup diced bacon (in Tasmania Boks is the best!)
2 bunches of asparagus
Kitchen twine to truss
Method:
Bone out your chicken, yes for some this may be daunting, but You Tube has plenty of videos, and the skill once learnt is a real feather in your culinary cap!
Lay the chicken out skin side down on a board and prepare the farce. Into a bowl place the mince, herbs and bacon. Add a teaspoon of salt and black pepper. Mix well, then place the chicken thigh in the middle of the chicken to fill in any holes. Put the farce onto the chicken and spread out to cover 2/3rds of the chicken, Place the asparagus down the centre of the farce and then proceed to roll the chicken into a roulade. Truss the chicken with kitchen twine to form a lovely roll. Season the outside skin with fennel salt (or your own favourite bespoke seasoning) and place on an oven rack in an oven tray. We want to save the pan juices for our sauce.
Place into a 200 C oven for 30 minutes, then reduce the temperature to 170 C for an hour more. If you have a steam oven, a little steam in the cavity will assist in keeping the meat moist. Allow it to stand in a warm place for 15 minutes to rest, then slice and serve.
Sauce: Put all the chicken bones into a pot with a carrot and an onion, cover with cold water and bring to a gentle simmer for an hour or so while your Ballotine is cooking. Strain into a clean pot and add the pan juices from the chicken. Bring to the boil and reduce by half to concentrate the flavours, check seasoning and add a spoon or 2 of Massel chicken stock powder. Mix a dessert spoon or 2 of cornflour into ½ a cup of cold white wine to thicken. Check and adjust flavour as you go to get a perfect result, after all it is the sauce that pulls the whole dish together!
This dish can be served hot or cold, visually it has wow factor, before your guests have even had a bite! A nice pear, rocket and blue cheese salad, or roast root vegetable salad is a great accompaniment to this sensational chicken dish. It is what I feed my family at Christmas time
