- Cook enough cous cous to fill the chicken cavity.
- Fluff up cous cous with some butter and salt and pepper to taste.
- Mix in some fresh sage leaves and dried cranberries.
I'm no expert at preparing chickens, but this is how I usually do it.
- Firstly, I removed any visible chunky bits of fat.
- Remove the neck if it's still attached.
- Pluck any remaining feathers.
- Check the inside to make sure all its innards have been removed.
Now...at the end where the neck is (or was, since I removed it) I used a toothpick to seal the hole so that the cous cous wouldn't just fall out when I pushed it in through the other side.
I stuffed the cous cous into the cavity and was pretty happy when I was only left with a few tablespoons. I used another toothpick to keep this end closed. Using some kitchen string, I tied up the drumsticks and made sure that the wings were folded and tucked under. I placed the chicken on a wire rack ontop of a baking dish. Unfortunately, I couldn't find a wire rack that fit inside the dish...they were all too big.
Now...cooking the chicken.
I have most of a bottle of verjuice in the fridge that I've been meaning to use up, and I came across this Maggie Beer recipe for a roast chicken in one of the magazines in the tearoom at work. I followed the instructions to the letter. I won't type them all up word for word, but just give you the jist of it.
- Preheat oven to 220C (fanforced oven).
- Mix 1/4cup olive oil with 1/4cup verjuice, salt and pepper to taste, and brush this all over the chicken. Place the chicken into the oven and roast for twenty minutes.
- Meanwhile, blanch some unpeeled garlic cloves in boiling water for a few minutes, remove, drain and set aside.
- Pour 1/4cup verjuice over the chicken, then 1/4cup water. Return to the oven for twenty minutes at 180C (fanforced).
- Pour another 1/4cup verjuice over the chicken, then 1/4cup water. Return to the oven along with the garlic (put these into the baking dish) for a further twenty minutes at 120C (fanforced).
- Remove chicken, cover with foil and let rest for about ten minutes.
When I removed the chicken from the oven to let it rest, I was drooling at how crispy and golden the skin looked.
While the chicken was roasting, I'd prepared some squid, fish, prawns and vegetables to make a seafood stew using the lobster stock I'd made with the remaining lobster shell from last night's dinner. Last night I'd bashed up the lobster head and put it into a pot with some celery stalks, a halved onion and fennel. I let it cook and put it into the fridge to use for soup today.
I also used onion, fennel, celery, clams, saffron and a dash of cream.
Later I got hungry and added some spaghetti to some of the stew. I definitely will be making this dish again!
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