This is a simple but delicious Sunday lunch. You can do a lot of the preparation a coupe of days ahead if you wish. It takes around 20 minutes to prepare and around 15 minutes cooking time before its ready to pop in the oven.
You'll need a La Creuset or similar Dutch oven & some string
Ingredients
1 good quality chicken, wishbone removed
Chipolatas wrapped in pancetta
A few sprigs of rosemary and bayleaves
A good glue of red wine
Paxo stuffing
Vegetable oil
1/2 good size red skin potato per person cut into large pieces - I cut mine in half, then each half into 4
Carrots, leeks and onions cut into large pieces and washed - I work on 1 carrot, 1/4 leek and 1/4 onion per person (you can substitute any of these for other root vegetables)
1 bulb garlic cut in half
Method - preperation
tie the chicken. I wrap string around the neck of the chicken and then tie it underneath the drum sticks. I then wrap the string around the drum sticks and tie again to form a nice, tight ball.
follow the recipe for the pact stuffing. A little tip here, I remove 10% of the water and replace it with veg oil, this helps prevent the stuffing drying out. Roll it into firm balls.
Method - cooking
Preheat your oven to 185ºc
Heat your pot on the stove and add a good squirt of vegetable oil. A little trick here if you are using Le Creuset. If you're like me and want it looking pristine inside after using it; before preheating rub the sides well with vegetable oil, do the same to the inside of the lid too. When you come to cleaning it all the marks come off with minimal effort!
Season the chicken all around with salt and place it in the pot, breast down and seal until golden brown. Turn it on its side and seal again until golden brown. Do this for all sides then take it out and set on a plate for now.
Add the stuffing and chipolatas to the pot and gently seal them until golden. Remove and place next to the chicken.
Add the remaining ingredients to the pot and stir until they ever so slightly start to brown. Add a good glass of wine, about 200ml and turn off the heat.
Place the chicken on top of the vegetables and place the stuffing and chipolatas around it. Pop the lid on and place in the oven. Set a timer for 90 minutes.
Remove the lid and turn the oven up to 220ºc. Continue to cook for a further 15 minutes.
Remove from the oven and check the chicken is cooked throughly. Ideally do this with a food probe, you are looking for anything over 74ºc in the thickest part. If you don't have a food probe, place a knife into the thickest part, remove then press against your incision. The juices should run out clear. If this isn't the case in either scenario place back in the oven for 5 minutes then test again.
Set the pot to one side and allow to cool for 5 minutes or so.
Remove the chicken onto a clean chopping board. Spoon the vegetables and stuffing etc onto a warmed platter then up to you if you wish to take the legs and breasts off the bone and place on top or take the board to the table and carve in front of your guests.