EASTER ROASTED CHICKEN WITH WILD GARLIC STUFFING

 

As there is still so much wild garlic left in our garden, the wild garlic recipe series continue. Today it’s a classical Czech Easter recipe. Yet it is already after Easter, but it doesn’t change the fact that it tastes delicious and you can cook it anytime you want, until you have your fresh wild garlic available.

 

 

 

Ingredients:
1 chicken (about 1,5kg)
2x 1,5cm thick slices of butter
salt
pepper

 

For the stuffing:
4 buns/rolls/semmeln (1-3 days old)
2 eggs
150g wild garlic
2 tbsp chopped parsley
150g whipping cream
100g butter
nutmeg
salt
pepper
ghee or oil for toasting

 

 

How to do it:

1. Cut rolls into 1-2cm cubes and roast them on a pan with oil or butter. If you use butter, the best choice would be a ghee.
2. Add in a big bowl and add evenly whipping cream. Mix carefully and let soak for 10-15min.
3. Divide egg yolk from egg whites. Whip the egg whites until stiff. The egg yolks are going to be mixed with softened butter.
4. Cut wild garlic into 1cm stripes.
5. To the soaked rolls add salt, pepper, nutmeg, wild garlic and chopped parsley – mix carefully (this way will the salt and seasoning spread evenly) and now mix in whipped egg whites and egg yolk-butter mixture. Mix well. For me it worked the best to do it with hands, because it is quite difficult to spread the egg yolk-butter mixture evenly.
6. Season the chicken thoroughly with salt and pepper, all inside and outside.
7. Add the two pieces of butter under the chicken breast skin on both left and right side (you can easily divide the skin from the meat as a pocket). Fill the chicken with the stuffing, close with toothpick or butcher’s string and place on a pan (make sure it is a one without plastic handle) or baking tin. Add the rest of the stuffing in a baking form.
8. Bake both stuffing (in the form) and chicken together for on 200°C. The stuffing will need about 20min until golden brown and the chicken about 45-60min.

Important: Do not open the oven door! This is how you get super crispy skin. If you want to spread a little bit of the juices/fat on the chicken during the baking, make it 10min before the end. And don’t worry if the stuffing got cold in between, to refresh it you can place it in the oven again after the chicken is baked and it is actually perfect timing, because the chicken will have time to slightly cool down. Or simply place the stuffing into the oven 20min before the chicken is done. You can open the oven door once, but the most important thing here is to not to do it several times, because the oven looses the heat and it takes quite long to reach the right temperature back again. That’s why it’s best to avoid opening the oven door as much as possible.