Ingredients

The following ingredients have 4 Servings
  • 2 cups Bread (cubed (stale will hold its shape better during the preparation process))
  • 2 tablespoons Cooking oil or butter
  • 2½ cups Onion (diced)
  • 2 cups Celery (diced)
  • 1 teaspoon Salt to taste
  • 3 tablespoons Parsley (freshly chopped)
  • 1 teaspoon Sage (dried)
  • 1 tablespoon Rosemary (freshly chopped)
  • 1 tablespoon Thyme (freshly chopped)
  • 3¼ cups Water (only if bread is dried or stale)
  • 2 medium Eggs

Instruction

  • We can use either stale or completely dried out bread. Dried bread is much harder to cut up so if we have bread for the sole purpose of making stuffing then cutting it up in advance will save us some effort and time. Best part of the stuffing is the crunchy crust so choose bread with plenty of crust to start with, like french baguette, bread rolls or similar stuff.
  • Heat oil in a skillet and sauté (stir-fry) diced onion, celery and salt until glassy / translucent look, about 5 minutes.
  • Lower the heat to medium low then slowly caramelize the onion and celery until it is browned, about 15 - 20 minutes.
  • In a big bowl, mix bread, freshly chopped parsley, sage, rosemary, thyme and the freshly prepared onion-celery.
  • Beat eggs and water together.
  • Mix the egg water mixture with the bread.
  • Stuff chicken until about ⅔ full with stuffing.
  • Secure the holes with wooden toothpicks, cocktail sticks or small skewers.
  • Place the remaining stuffing into an oven proof dish. We can put them next to the chicken too but stuffing won't require more then 20 - 30 minutes in the oven so keep them out of the oven until the end of roasting.
  • Or roast some mushrooms and make them into balls. If short of bread, use some breadcrumbs as an emergency option.
  • Place the chicken into the middle rack of a 375°F/190°C oven and roast until golden brown, about 2 - 3 hours. Add some vegetables into the pan if desired.
  • Baste the chicken in every half an hour during roasting but at least twice.
  • Once the chicken skin turns golden brown, increase the heat to 425°F/220°C and let it crisp but mind not to burn it.
  • Now it is the time to add the stuffing balls too. If there is no place then wait until the chicken is out of the oven.
  • Do the same with the stuffing, we have prepared in a separate oven safe dish. Roast for about 20 - 35 minutes. If we have a broiler, it can be even faster but it needs some experimenting with the rack position and heat as the top can scorch quite easily.