pafret Loc: Northeast

Ballottine of Chicken with Spinach Filling
By Jacques Pépin -

Chicken Ballottine Stuffed with Red Rice or Spinach, Cheese, and Bread

A ballottine is a whole chicken that has been boned and stuffed. Showy enough for company, it can be prepared up to a day ahead. (Freeze the bones and the neck, gizzard, and heart for later use in soup or stock.) This bird is best cooked in a sturdy, preferably aluminum, roasting pan, to ensure a good condensation of the cooking juices, which will be used to create the sauce.

Long-grain Wehani rice has a chewy texture that I love. I cook it with mushrooms in stock and then flavor it with leeks and onions for the stuffing. As an alternative, you can stuff the ballottine with a combination of spinach, cheese, and cubed bread. The ballottine is served with a rich wine sauce made with the defatted chicken drippings and a mixture of finely diced vegetables, called a brunoise. Serves 4

1 chicken (about 3¾ lbs.), boned ¼ tsp salt
¼ tsp freshly ground black pepper
Red Rice Stuffing or Spinach, Cheese, and Bread Stuffing

Sauce:
1 celery stalk (2 Oz), peeled and cut into ¼” dice (½ cup)
1 carrot (2 Oz), peeled and cut into ¼” dice (1/3 cup)
1/3 cup water
½ cup dry red wine
1 small onion, chopped (½ cup)
½ tsp Potato Starch mix in 1 Tblsp water**
1 Tblsp dark soy sauce
1 Tblsp chopped fresh parsley

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
Lay the chicken skin side down on the work surface and sprinkle with the salt and pepper. Spread the cool rice or spinach mixture evenly over the chicken. If using the spinach stuffing, sprinkle the cheese and bread cubes on top of the spinach. Roll the chicken up, tie it with kitchen string, and place it in a roasting pan.

Roast the ballottine for 1 hour. Lift it from the pan and place it on a platter.

For The Sauce:
Skim off and discard most of the fat from the drippings in the pan. Add the water and wine to the drippings to deglaze the pan, and heat over medium heat, stirring to loosen and melt the solidified juices.
Strain the juices into a saucepan. Add the celery, onion, and carrot and bring to a boil over high heat. Cover, reduce the heat to low, and boil gently for 5 minutes. Stir in the dissolved Potato Starch :: and soy sauce and bring the mixture back to a boil, stirring, to thicken it. Remove from the heat.

Transfer the ballottine to a cutting board and remove the string. Cut half of it into 4 or 5 slices, each about 1 inch thick. Return the uncut half of the ballottine to the serving platter and arrange the cut slices in front of it. Pour the sauce over and around the ballottine, garnish with the parsley, and serve. Cut additional slices of ballottine as needed at the table.

Red Rice Stuffing
1¼ cups homemade chicken stock (see recipe below) or low-salt canned chicken broth
½ cup dried mushrooms, such as cèpes (porcini), rinsed and broken into pieces
½ cup Wehani rice*
¼ tsp salt
1 cup cleaned, split, washed, leek 1 onion (4 Oz), chopped (3/4 cup)
1 Tblsp olive oil
¼ cup water

*Substitutes for Wehani rice are Basmati, Brown or Wild Rice
**Pepin prefers Potato starch over Corn starch but either may be used.

Combine the rice, stock, salt, and dried mushrooms in a large saucepan and bring to a boil, then cover, reduce the heat to low, and cook for 1 hour, or until the rice is tender. Set the rice aside in the pan, uncovered.
Meanwhile, combine the leek, onion, oil, and water in a saucepan and bring to a boil, then cover, reduce the heat, and cook at a gentle boil for 5 minutes. Remove the lid and continue to cook until all the water is gone. Add to the rice, mix well, and let cool to room temperature.

Spinach, Cheese, and Bread Stuffing
1 Tblsp olive oil
1 tsp finely chopped garlic
5 Oz baby spinach leaves
¼ tsp salt
¼ tsp freshly ground black pepper
1½ cups cubed (1/2-inch) bread
1 cup grated Gruyère or mozzarella cheese (about 4 Oz)

Heat the oil in a large saucepan or skillet. Add the garlic, spinach, salt, and pepper and cook for 1 minute to soften the garlic and wilt the spinach.
Transfer to a bowl and let cool to room temperature.

Potato Starch:
I often use a “pure starch” — generally Potato Starch or arrowroot — to finish a sauce and give it a bit of viscosity. If nothing else is available, you can substitute cornstarch, but it tends to make a sauce gooey and gelatinous. I prefer Potato Starch ::, which is made from steamed potatoes that are dried and ground. Potato Starch :: is gluten-free and sometimes appears in baked goods, particularly Jewish-Passover specialties. Inexpensive and available in 1-lb. packages, it can be found in the Kosher section of many supermarkets and in Asian specialty food shops (it is also used in Japanese cooking). Arrowroot, on the other hand, comes in very small containers and is very expensive.
All of these starches are used in the same way: they are diluted with a little cold liquid — water, wine, or stock — and then stirred into a hot sauce. The starch thickens the sauce on contact and then it is usually brought to a boil.

Chicken Stock
By Jacques Pépin -

Makes 3 quarts
It takes very little work to make your own stock; mostly it is a matter of being at home for the several hours it takes to cook. A flavorful money saver that is practically fat- and salt-free, homemade stock can be frozen in small quantities and used as needed.
Chicken backs and necks are available at most supermarkets. If you don’t see them, ask the butcher to set aside some for you. I also make stock from the bones of roasted chicken or turkey.

4 lbs. chicken bones (necks, backs, wings, etc.), skinless or with as little skin as possible
6 quarts cold water
1 large onion (about 8 Oz), quartered
1 Tblsp Herbes de Provence
12 whole cloves
4 bay leaves
1 Tblsp dark soy sauce (optional)

Combine the bones and water in a large stockpot and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat and boil gently for 30 minutes. Most of the fat and impurities will rise to the surface; skim off as much of them as you can and discard them.

Add the onion, Herbes de Provence, cloves, bay leaves, and soy sauce, if using, return to a boil, and boil gently for 2 1/2 hours. Strain the stock through a fine strainer or a colander lined with dampened paper towels. Allow to cool.

Remove the surface fat and refrigerate the stock for up to 5 days, or pour into containers and freeze.

debeda

Oh my gosh that sounds like a delicious gourmet treat!!!.

pafret Loc: Northeast

It is, if you have never done it before the tricky part is boning the chicken. There are Youtube videos to show how. My brother could do it in less than five minutes (I called him two-finger Joe), it takes me a little longer. The fillings can be varied to suit your fancy but it makes an impressive dinner presentation.

debeda

I have an old old old cook book that tells how. Also how to dress and cook game and how to can