Chicken Galantine Stuffed with Sausage, Onion and Sage

Chicken Galantine Stuffed with Sausage, Onion and Sage

Poultry
French, Dinner Party, Main Dish

Serves 4-6

Boning a whole chicken may not seem like an everyday project, but I promise that once you’ve done it three or four times, you’ll find it easy. Or at least not intimidating. Once you reach that point, this makes an elegant (but not fussy) and delicious chicken dinner for a cool autumn evening.

The sausage stuffing gives the meat tons of flavor and keeps everything nice and moist, so you don’t really need any sauce.

For a different flavor profile, use Italian sausage and omit the sage.

Ingredients #

  • The Chicken & Garniture: #

    • A 6- to 7-pound (2 ¾- to 3 1/4- kg) roasting chicken or capon, deboned (a typical 4 lb whole chicken is fine)
    • 8-10 new potatoes
    • 1 1/2 lemons, with a bay leaf stuck in each lemon half
    • A few large button mushrooms, hollowed out for stuffing (optional)

  • For the stuffing: #

    • 4-5 slices of stale white bread
    • 2 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed
    • 10-12 fresh sage leaves
    • 1 white onion, peeled and quartered
    • 3 pork sausages, skins removed (or 1 lb breakfast sausage)
    • 1 egg

  • Equipment: #

    • A sharp boning knife
    • A large ball of plain white string (butcher’s twine)
    • A trussing needle

Instructions #

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Put all stuffing ingredients into a food processor and pulse them until very well combined and ground. Turn the mixture out into a bowl and knead it by hand to ensure it’s fully mixed.

Take half of your stuffing mixture and spread it over the inside of your deboned chicken before tying up the chicken. Spread some butter over the top of your rolled chicken, and sprinkle with salt and paprika.

Turn the rest of the stuffing mixture into stuffing balls, or stuff them into mushrooms to roast along side the chicken.

Place your chicken galantine, stuffing balls, potatoes and lemons into a big roasting tray. Cover the whole tray with foil and roast for 15 minutes.

Remove the foil and roast your chicken for another 45 minutes, taking the chicken out to baste every 10-15 minutes.

Allow to rest for 10-15 minutes before slicing to serve.