Prune, Olive and Caper-stuffed, Boneless Roast Chicken
Pure Sea Salt in a Finer Flake
A centrepiece of a recipe from Ed Smith's latest book, Peckish, which heroes chicken in all its forms. Here, Ed's brought together sweet and salty flavours for the middle of your table.
From Ed 'An impressive centrepiece (wait, what, no bones?!), this might be a little daunting first time round. But having successfully cooked it once, you will be able to prepare it speedily, and I’m certain will do so often. The benefits are multiple: it’s straightforward to cook; impressive and easy to carve; and endlessly adaptable – a multitude of stuffings would work, however I love the sweet and salty flavours in this recipe, which imitate the eighties classic, chicken Marbella. Serve with roast potatoes and a big pile of buttery, sautéed seasonal greens.
Alternatively, try jewelled grains, such as pearl barley or freekeh, or roast smashed baby
potatoes and a sharply dressed bitter leaf salad.'
Get Ed's book, Peckish, published by Quadrille here.
Ingredients
- 1 echalion shallot or small onion (70–80g), finely diced
- 30g salted butter, we like Castle Dairies
- 120g 1–3-day-old sourdough bread, roughly chopped
- 60g soft prunes, roughly chopped
- 60g fat green pitted olives (such as Gordal)
- A large handful of flat-leaf parsley (about 15g), roughly chopped
- Zest and juice of ½ orange (60ml)
- 1 tbsp capers nonpareilles
- 1 large chicken (1.8–2.2kg), deboned
- 2 tbsp neutral cooking oil
- 250ml chicken stock or vegetable stock
- 15g cold salted butter
- Pure Sea Salt in a Finer Flake and ground black pepper, to taste
Method
- In a small pan, gently cook the shallots or onions along with a generous pinch of salt in the butter for 6–7 minutes to soften and sweeten them.
- In a food processor, blitz the bread into fine breadcrumbs and transfer to a mixing bowl. Add the prunes, olives and parsley to the processor and pulse a few times until coarsely
- chopped. Transfer to the breadcrumb bowl along with the shallots or onions and residual butter, orange zest and juice, and the capers. Stir until soggy and well mixed.
- Lay the deboned chicken skin-side down on a board. Season the flesh very generously with salt and pepper, then spread the stuffing mixture all over the underside of the bird, pushing
- a handful into each leg to fill them equally and compressing the mix into a compact layer. Fold one side into the middle, then the other to meet it, then fold the wing end in. Taking
- care to keep the sides together (and avoid losing stuffing), turn the joint over, so the join is now underneath and it looks like a plump chicken.
- Tie the chicken with twine so it stays in one piece and the stuffing remains inside. If you’re not confident with butcher’s knots search online for ‘Jaques Pepin deboning chicken for galantine’ to visualise it (he demonstrates it towards the end of the 10-minute video). Your first attempt might not be perfect, but it will be good enough!
- Season the bird all over with fine salt. Ideally refrigerate, uncovered, for an hour or so to dry out the skin a little.
- Heat the oven to 210°C/190°C fan/400°F.
- Place the bird in a small, low-sided roasting tin or on a baking sheet with a rim. Rub with cooking oil, then roast for 50 minutes, basting a couple of times in the last 15 minutes to
- encourage the skin to bronze. Remove from the oven and rest the chicken on a warm plate for 10 minutes.
- Meanwhile, make a light gravy by deglazing the cooking pan with the stock, and then letting that bubble and reduce for 5–10 minutes. Whisk in the cold butter, pour in any additional resting juices, then decant into a jug and carve the chicken at the table.
