Oh, what I did to a chicken yesterday! It was an unnatural act. And the next week, I did it again.
It started with a cookbook, The Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking by Marcella Hazan. (Read the reviews: this book is a definitive authority. 750 pages of Italian classics.)
When I picked it up, it opened to a page halfway through the book where I saw a wondrous thing, an outrageous idea, described as if it's as normal as pie:
A boneless chicken stuffed with ground beef.
I was seduced by drawings:
Is it a chicken filled with meat loaf? Or a meat loaf wrapped with a chicken?
I had to try this.
Here's the low-down. You start with a chicken. You split it open at the back and take out all the bones except for the wings. You now have a comically floppy sheet of chicken. You make a meatloaf mix and put it inside and Frankenstein the chicken so it resembles a chickeny balloon full of meat.
Roast and serve: Meatloaf. In a chicken.
That is so fun to say.
Here's what I did. The original recipe differed in several material respects from what I made. Hers was stuffed with beef and parmesan; mine was pretty much meat loaf. Hers was pan roasted on the stove, mine was done mostly in the oven. If you want a really good description, buy the book. If you are willing to experiment, you can follow me as I stumble around the kitchen with sharp knives and a hot oven...
Shopping
I bought a 5-pound chicken and my standard meatloaf mix: 50% ground chuck, 25% ground veal, 25% ground pork. This is a great combination with a firm texture and rich, meaty flavor. About 1.25-1.5 pounds of the mix is about right for a 4-1/2 to 5-pound bird.
I use no fillers but you can grab some fresh herbs — basil, thyme, marjoram would be good.
Which Comes First?
Start with the chicken. I did this the day before I planned to cook the bird. It took about an hour — the second time, it took 35 minutes.
If frozen, thaw it completely. I wore rubber gloves, mostly because the chicken is cold.
You need a sharp knife with a narrow blade. I used a boning knife. A paring knife would work. Serrated knife, not so good. The book cautions that you do not want to tear or poke a hole in the skin because any hole will run. So always be mindful of the knife and steer it against the bone. I ended up with one hole, near the seam, and was able to sew it back up, no problem.
Cut the meat down the back, all the way to the backbone:
Starting at the neck, tear the meat off the rib cage, taking as much meat as possible. To do this, work your finger under the meat and peel it away with your hands. Assist with the knife, cutting as you need to separate meat from bone. Feather-cuts along the bones work well but most of the separating is done with the fingers and the knife just assists. Work slowly at first. It's not difficult.
Work your way toward the tail. Don't worry about proceeding around the rib cage to the breast yet. You will do that part last. Instead, proceed along the back, freeing the back of the rib cage as you go.
At the pelvis, you will encounter the oyster — a lovely knot of meat near the back, in a hollow in the pelvic bone. Dig that out and just behind it you will find the top of the thigh bone where it joins the pelvis. This tissue is well joined so you will need the knife to expose the joint. Use the scissors to separate the thigh bone from the pelvis, snipping around the joint to free the bone end.
Once the end of the thigh bone is free, hold it with one hand and use the knife to free meat from the bone. I found that a good way to do this was to hold the end of the bone up and let the rest of the chicken hang down. Let the chicken's weight pull the meat away as you slide the knife along and around the bone, as if you are shaving the bone. Cut as close to the bone as you can with many light cuts.
There are tendons anchoring the meat to the joint. You want those tendons to come away with the meat. The less you leave on the bone, the better. As you shave around the bone, the meat will fall away and turn inside out. When the bone is just about free, you can twist it free or cut it away with the shears.
Remove the the drumstick bone in the same fashion. When you get to the very end, cut all the way around the bone until it is free. The leg will be inside-out. Turn it right-side-out again and proceed to the second side.
With all the leg bones removed, turn your attention to the rib cage. Tear and cut the flesh away, using the knife as necessary and remembering to always keep the knife edge turned toward bone, to avoid cutting the skin. Stop short of the keel bone — the bone that joins the two rib halves at the chicken's breast.
When you reach the wings, cut the joints the way you did with the thigh bone. Don't try to remove the wing bones.
When everything is free except the keel bone, pause. The flesh is thin there and you will want to be careful to avoid tearing the skin. Hold the rib cage up and let the meat dangle, so gravity can pull the meat away as you work. Use feather cuts and your fingers to ease the meat off the bones. When only a tiny strip holds the meat to the bone, you can cut it away and the job is done.
Behold! A comically flat bird awaits you!
Wrap and refrigerate while you turn your attention to the stuffing. You can refrigerate overnight and stuff the next day if you want.
Meat Loaf
Before you begin, prepare a needle and thread. Use a heavy cotton thread and a large needle. You will need a good 3-4 feet of thread.
Mix the meatloaf ingredients. Handle gently to keep the meat loaf as loose as you can. I use just the meat (1/2 chuck, 1/4 veal, 1/4 pork) but you can add breadcrumbs or anything else you like in meat loaf. I added a handful of fresh herbs — probably 1/4 cup of parsley, a couple of tablespoons of thyme, and quite a lot of marjoram — probably 1/2 cup. You can use anything that strikes your fancy but don't use raw onions — they don't cook enough in a meatloaf to meld with the other ingredients.
Stuff the meat mixture into the legs. Spend a little time here, tucking meat as deeply as you can into the hollowed legs.
Once the legs are stuffed, form the rest of the meat into a mass, packing it loosely. Pull the sides of the bird and begin stitching, beginning at the neck end.
You don't need a fancy stitch (fortunately, since I don't know any).
Close the neck opening and then begin sewing up the back.
Continue to the neck opening and sew it shut. Double up the last stitch and cut off any excess.
Pat the bird into shape. Refrigerate until it's time to cook, overnight if you like.
Cooking
In the book, she cooks the bird in a closed pot on the stove top. I browned the bird in a pan and finished it in the oven but next time, I think I would just roast it.
With a stuffed bird, the trick is getting the inside cooked without overcooking the breast meat. Because poultry harbors salmonella and campylobacter, you will need to be extra careful to make sure the center of the meat loaf reaches at least 160 degrees. (150 is probably sufficient but most recomendations are for 160 to 170, to allow a little margin).
The leg meat needs to reach about 170 and the breast needs to be as close to 160 as you can manage (much beyond that and the white meat will be dry and awful.)
Next time, I plan to roast it at 325 degrees, breast down, for 30 minutes, then turn the bird breast up and roast until the breast is at 155 or 160.
Be sure to use a thermometer and make sure you reach a solid 160 degrees in the center. If you're not sure your thermometer is accurate, you'll need to give it some extra.
I also plan to try brining – I think that would really improve this dish.
Ready to Serve
So how did we do?
Meat loaf wrapped in chicken. What's not to like?
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