De-boned Stuffed Chicken
Original recipe by My Mom
This is a family and friends favorite. This chicken gets deboned, stuffed with a mixture of ground beef, chorizo, olives and spices, and then gets sewn back together. Once it's finished it can be cut into slices, and it can be enjoyed hot right away or cold the next day
Ingredients
Method
Start by adding the ground beef, chorizo, olives, 1 egg, salt and pepper, and crushed crackers to a bowl and mix well. If the mixture is too try add another egg, if it is too wet add more crackers.
Next, you will need to debone the chicken. Read the notes below for a guideline.
Once the chicken is "flat" season it well with salt and pepper on the inside.
Sew the neck cavity shut using the kitchen string and kitchen needle.
Start adding the meat mixture into the chicken making sure to get into all the little nooks. Your chicken should now begin to take shape again. Do not overstuff.
Once the chicken is stuffed gently pull the skin of the rear cavity together and start sewing it shut. Be careful not to tug too much on the skin.
Hogtie the chicken so that it keeps its shape through the initial phase of cooking.
Place the chicken in a casserole dish, season with salt and pepper, and throw a few chunks of butter on top.
Place the chicken in the preheated oven at 100 C and set a timer for 3 hours and an additional timer for 30 minutes. Baste the chicken with the melted butter every 30 minutes until the cooking time is completed so the skin is nice and crispy.
Notes
This chicken recipe is difficult to master, but it is worth it. Once you've tried it, you'll want to have it again and again. Most importantly be patient, work carefully and precisely, use a sharp knife, cut away from the body, and be careful with your fingers.
There are two methods you can use to debone the chicken: cutting through the breast bone (keel bone) skin from front to back, which will make deboning easier but requires more sewing later, or cutting on the inside beneath the skin using the chicken cavities, neck, and rear, deboning is a little more difficult but makes for less sewing later and generally looks better. We will focus on the second method for today.
Start by inserting the knife down the neck cavity, slicing into the breast meat, and separating it from the breast bone on both sides, you might be able to go about halfway down the length of the breast. While you are there, separate the wings from the breast bone where they join the breast bone. Use your fingers to assist in detaching the breast from the bone.
From the rear cavity, insert the knife into the breast and again separate the meat from the bone as far down as you can go, also separate the the inner thigh bone from the breast bone, you should now be able to move the top half of the meat away from the breast bone, it will still be attached on the bottom.
Cut longitudinally along the inner thigh bone and then pull back the meat to expose the bone, once the entire bone is exposed separate the bone from the drumstick.
Finally, pull the skin and meat upward to the neck cavity so that the entire carcass is exposed now carefully begin to slice away the remaining meat from the backbone; be careful not to cut the skin, as it is rather thin here.
Now, your chicken should look flat, with only the wings and the drumsticks still attached.
