Chicken with garlic and chestnut stuffing
To serve 6
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Your support makes all the difference.1 large deboned free-range chicken, wings removed
Olive oil, for drizzling
For the stuffing
Olive oil, for frying
Half an onion, peeled and diced
1 garlic clove, peeled and chopped
1 celery stick, trimmed and diced
50g pine nuts
75g peeled cooked chestnuts, broken into pieces
100g cooked mixed rice, e.g basmati and wild rice
2 tablespoons chopped parsley
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
For the parsley dressing
Small bunch of flat leaf parsley
1 garlic clove, peeled
Half a tablespoon wholegrain mustard
1 to one and a half tablespoons red wine vinegar
5 tablespoons olive oil
This is an all-in-one dish, where the deboned chicken encases a stuffing of rice and chestnuts. The sweetness of the chestnuts is set off with a simple parsley vinaigrette. Deboning a chicken is a fiddly job, but your butcher can do it for you.
Preheat the oven to 180C/Gas 4. For the stuffing, heat a large frying pan over a medium heat and add a glug of oil. Sauté the onion for 4 minutes, then add the garlic and cook for another 1–2 minutes until softened. Add the celery, then stir in the pine nuts and chestnuts, taste and season well. Add the cooked rice and parsley, stir again, then taste and adjust the seasoning.
Place the deboned chicken skin side down on a work surface. Season inside. Place the stuffing in the centre of the chicken and fold the sides around it. Tie the chicken at regular intervals with string, then turn the parcel over so that the breast faces upwards. Drizzle olive oil over the outside of the chicken and season with salt and pepper. Place in a roasting tray and roast for 1 hour, basting now and again, then turn the oven up to 200C/Gas 6 and roast for a further 15–20 minutes until the chicken is cooked through and the skin golden and crisp. Remove and rest for 15 minutes before serving.
Meanwhile, make the dressing. Finely chop the parsley and garlic. Mix with the mustard and vinegar, then add the olive oil bit by bit, whisking continuously to thicken.
Serve the stuffed chicken in slices with the dressing spooned on top.
Taken from 'Gordon Ramsay's Ultimate Cookery Course' by Gordon Ramsay, (Hodder & Stoughton, £25). Photograph by Anders Schønnemann
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