Teleidoscope

Mon, Jun 16, 2008

Apricot stuffing

Posted at 11:11 pm MDT to Miscellaneous

Yesterday I had a whole chicken breast to cook (both sides stll attached, and decided to try oven-roasting it. America's Test Kitchen has a recipe where they butterfly a chicken and roast it over a bed of stuffing, and I thought that would be adaptable to an articulated breast.

When I checked their website for oven temperature, etc. I found a recipe for stuffing that used ingredients I mostly had on hand. Tweakable to work around my new diet restrictions.

My version:

Dissolve 1/2 cup salt in two cups water, 
brine chicken for one hour

Preheat oven to 450 degrees

2 Tbs olive oil heated in skillet
1 cup fennel, chopped, cooked until softening

Add
1 clove garlic, pressed
1/3 cup chopped dried apricots
1/8 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp fresh ground black pepper
2 cups chicken broth
and bring to boiling

Stir in
1.5 cups wholewheat couscous
1/8 cup dried parsley
take of heat, and cover, allow couscous to absorb liquid

Take chicken out of brine, 
pat dry and spread skin with oil and pepper

Make an aluminum foil boat, spray with Pam, fill with stuffing  
Place in roasting pan, arrange chicken on top

Roast until 160+ degrees in thickest part of breast
check occasionally and add broth if couscous is drying out too much
Let chicken rest 10 minutes before serving

The original recipe called for 1/4 cup chopped unsalted toasted cashews, stirred in after the couscous is hydrated. I usually have cashews in the house, but I haven't been to Costco since I finished the last jar. Cashews would be good. I've noticed they have organic ones now at Costco.

The couscous needed more liquid so I kept adding chicken broth both before and during the roasting. A full butterflied chicken would have covered more of the stuffing and helped keep it from drying out, but whole wheat couscous also needs more liquid than plain.

I need to make a smaller batch of stuffing next time. A good small roasting pan would be nice, too. I used a 9x9 inch baking dish but metal would be better. The Mario Batali lasagna pan is enameled castiron, 9x13 by 3 inches deep. I've been thinking of getting one to match my Dutch oven ... It might be useful for this.

I may try a whole butterflied chicken someday, but I'd be eating it forever: it looks like I'll get 4 meals out of just this double breast.

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