After the first attempt at preparing a de-boned chicken, I tried again with a 6lb Capon that I had in the freezer from after Christmas. I also had some left over ‘Black Pudding‘ (actually it was kiszka), from our Burn’s Supper at the weekend, that I used to make the stuffing.
I was confident from the last attempt, to be able to de-bone the chicken without the aid of the Jacques Pepin video, however it wasn’t until I was lacing up the bird that I realised I had made a mistake with the wings. Instead of cutting at the elbow and then removing the top wing bone, I removed the whole wing, leaving a hole that made tying up the chicken difficult. Doh! Another problem was making too much stuffing and trying to fit it all into the ballotine. This made cutting it quite tricky. Ok, two lessons learned for next time.
One upsides of the mistake with the wings that I was able to make four chicken ‘lollipops’ instead of just two. I coated these in a little of my ‘grub rub’ and cooked them for about 25mins in the oven in a muffin tray. They were a nice snack while waiting for the chicken to be ready.
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- Black Pudding Stuffed Capon
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- Chicken Lollipops
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- Stuffing Problems
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- Stuffed and ready for the oven
‘Black Pudding’ stuffing recipe
- Four kiszka or ‘Black Puddings’ ~ 2lbs. Remove the skins
- One large yellow onion
- Two cups of breadcrumbs
- 2 tsp of dried thyme
- Salt and pepper
Saute the onions, add the kiszka, cook for a few minutes before adding the rest of the ingredients. Transfer to a casserole dish and cook in a 185C (365F) oven for about 45mins. Allow to cool before stuffing the chicken.
