Roast chicken with Christmas stuffing
A whole poussin - also known in Australia as spatchcock - stuffed with a very Christmassy mixture of sausage, apple, dried fruits and nuts, is a feast to remember. Serve with a bowl of cranberry sauce or redcurrant jelly.
Ingredients
4 tbsp olive oil
1 red onion, finely diced
2 good pork sausages
1/2 green apple, peeled, cored and diced
75g sourdough bread, crustless
50g dried cranberries
50g currants
50g mixed dried peel
50g walnuts, roughly chopped
2 tbsp finely chopped parsley
1 tsp thyme leaves
1 egg, beaten
500g butternut pumpkin, peeled
500g red-skinned potatoes, peeled
4 bay leaves
4 rosemary sprigs
4 fresh poussins, about 500g each
Sea salt and coarsely ground black pepper
2 tbsp butter
200g frozen peas
Method
Heat oven to 200C.
Heat two tablespoons oil in a frypan and gently cook onion until soft. Remove onion and leave to cool. Skin sausages and pinch the meat into the pan. Add apple and fry until sausage meat is cooked. Leave to cool.
Whiz bread into crumbs in a food processor. Combine breadcrumbs with onion, sausage, apple, cranberries, currants, mixed peel, walnuts, parsley, thyme and egg, mixing lightly but well with your hands.
Dice pumpkin and potato into two-centimetre cubes and toss with remaining olive oil, bay leaves and rosemary.
Wipe poussins clean and push stuffing into each cavity. Tie the two legs together with string, season well and daub with one tablespoon butter (any extra stuffing can be baked alongside).
Bake vegetables and poussins for 50-60 minutes or until the chickens are golden, moving the vegetables around occasionally to brown evenly.
Pour a kettleful of boiling water over the peas, leave for two minutes, then drain and toss with remaining butter.
Remove string from poussins and serve surrounded by vegetables. Scatter with peas and serve.
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Jill Dupleix is a Good Food contributor and reviewer who writes the Know-How column.
