Boned Stuffed Chicken With Veal And Pistachios Recipes

Steps:

• Clean and wash the chicken, and cut off the wing tips and leg ends to make the removal of the skin possible. Singe the chicken over a flame to loosen the skin from the flesh. Carefully pull the skin right off, as though undressing the chicken, taking care not to tear it, starting from the neck and pulling it off the legs last. It will come right off with the occasional help of a pointed knife. Wash the skin, turn it right side out, and put it aside.
• Cut the skinned chicken into quarters, put them in a saucepan, and cover with water. Add 2 tablespoons of the oil, season with salt and pepper, bring to the boil, and simmer gently until the chicken is very tender-about 30-45 minutes. Remove from the heat and let it cool in the stock. Drain and keep the stock.
• Bone the chicken, discarding nerves and tendons, and grind or chop the meat finely. Put it in a large bowl, mix in the ground veal, and season with salt and pepper. Knead very well, then add the pistachio nuts and work them into the mixture.
• Using a needle and strong thread, sew up all but the largest vent in the chicken skin and darn any holes. Stuff the skin carefully with the chicken-and-veal mixture, and re-form as nearly as possible in its original shape. Sew the opening tightly.
• Heat the remaining oil in a large pan, put in the stuffed chicken, and turn to brown it lightly all over. Add the lemon juice and about half a ladle of the stock. Simmer gently, covered, for about 1 hour, turning the chicken over, and adding more stock, half a ladle at a time, if it becomes dry. At the end of the cooking time, the veal should be well cooked and almost blended with the chicken, and the sauce much reduced. Remove from the heat and allow to cool overnight in its own sauce.
• Serve cold. Traditionally, the chicken is served already cut in thick slices, but I think it looks rather beautiful with its subdued boneless shape, served whole and sliced at the table.
• A version said to be for lazy cooks is just as delicious, though not as dramatic. Cook the chicken as in the recipe for sofrito (page 213), adding just a pinch of turmeric or none at all. When cool, skin it and remove the bones and tendons. Grind or chop the flesh and mix it with the ground veal, 1 egg, and a handful of chopped pistachios. Knead thoroughly and roll into a thick sausage shape. Sauté in 2 tablespoons hot oil, turning it until golden all over. Add water, a little at a time, as it becomes absorbed, and simmer gently, covered, until well cooked, turning it over once. Allow to cool in its sauce for several hours before serving. Serve cut in slices.

Steps:

• Put the bread cubes in a small bowl and pour the milk over them; toss together, and let the bread soak up the milk, tossing the cubes every few minutes so they moisten evenly.
• Meanwhile, put the mortadella, onion, carrot, and celery pieces in the food processor, fitted with the steel blade, and chop them together into fine bits, processing continuously for about 1/2 minute; scrape down the sides of the bowl, and process briefly until everything is a pastelike mix.
• Pour the olive oil into a 10- or 12-inch skillet, and set over medium-high heat; scrape in the chopped stuffing and spread it in the pan. As it starts to sizzle, lower the heat considerably, stir, and sauté gently for 3 or 4 minutes to bring out the flavors-don't let the stuffing get crusty or colored.
• Squeeze the bread cubes firmly by handfuls to get out excess milk, and scatter them over the stuffing. Still cooking over low heat, break up the bread clumps with a spoon or spatula, and stir to incorporate completely. Mix in the chopped prunes, and cook them with the stuffing for a minute or so. Take the pan off the heat and scrape the stuffing into a bowl.
• Let the stuffing cool, then stir in the pine nuts, grated cheese, parsley, salt, pepper, and the beaten egg, mixing thoroughly.
• At this time, set a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat it to 400°.
• As I explain in the box (page 359), and as you can see in the photos, your stuffing method will vary with the size and cut of veal breast (and your own preferences). Follow these general steps to prepare the breast: Rinse and dry it thoroughly. Check the breast for pockets of fat and remove. There is often a clump of fat on the bony side, where you will see a flap of meat partially covering the ribs. Lift this flap, and cut away the fat hidden inside. Do not remove the skin on the bottom-either from the ribs or the meat flap-as it helps hold the breast together.
• This flap of meat, under the ribs, is the one I use to wrap around the stuffed breast in the photos. Cut it off, shave off the silver skin from both sides, then pound it with a meat hammer or tenderizer until it is paper-thin, like carpaccio. And there's your wrapper!
• To stuff: Follow the method shown in the photos, first cutting a pocket in the meaty layers on top of the ribs, then filling it with your stuffing. Enclose the breast and exposed stuffing with the pounded veal flap (or use bacon strips or prosciutto slices), and tie securely with kitchen twine.
• If you have a whole veal-breast tip cut, you need only slice open the pocket on the wide side down to the tip and push the stuffing in toward the closed tip. Then tie the roast closed.
• Put the tied breast in the roasting pan and sprinkle the salt all over, patting the crystals into the meat. Pour on the olive oil and rub it all over. Set the breast, rib side down, in the center of the pan.
• Put all the chopped vegetables, the prunes, and the seasonings (except the salt) in a big bowl, and toss with the 3 tablespoons of olive oil. If your broth is unsalted, add 1 teaspoon salt to the vegetables-use less salt or no salt if your broth is salted already. Scatter the vegetables and seasonings around the veal in the pan. Pour in the white wine and 2 cups or more broth or water, so the cooking liquid is about 1/2 inch deep in the pan.
• Cover the pan with one or more long sheets of aluminum foil, arching the foil if necessary to keep it from touching the meat and vegetables. Crimp the foil around the rim of the pan, and press it tightly against the sides all around, sealing the veal and vegetables in a tent.
• Set the pan in the oven and roast for an hour, then bring the roasting pan up front and carefully remove the foil. The veal should be lightly browned and the juices bubbling. Baste with the juices, turn the vegetables over, and push the pan back into the oven.
• Roast for another hour or so, uncovered, basting every 20 minutes and rotating the pan back to front for even cooking. The top of the veal breast should be brown and crusty, the vegetables lightly browned as well, and the liquid considerably reduced. Remove from the oven.
• Lift out the veal breast with a large spatula, or by holding it with towels, and rest it on a platter while you start the sauce.
• With a potato masher, crush the cooked vegetables in the juices, breaking them up into little bits. Set the sieve over the saucepan, and pour everything from the pan through it, pressing the solids against the sieve with a big spoon to release their liquid, then discard the remains. Let the juices rest, and when the fat rises to the top, skim it off. (Putting the pan in a bowl of ice water will help the fat to congeal, if you are in a hurry.) Set the saucepan over high heat, bring the juices to a boil, and reduce them, uncovered, until they've thickened to a syrupy sauce.
• Meanwhile, return the veal to the roasting pan and pour any accumulated juices into the saucepan. Baste the veal one more time with hot juices, and put it back in the oven to roast for 30 minutes more, until it is dark and crusty on top and the sides are browned as well.
• To make sure the stuffing is cooked too, insert an instant-read thermometer into the stuffing layer. At 160°, it is ready.
• Remove the veal from the oven, and let it rest for 10 minutes.
• Cut away the kitchen twine. Remove the ribs, loosening them with a knife, and pulling them out one at a time while holding the roast steady.
• Slice crosswise into thick slices with a sharp, serrated knife. Lay the slices on a warm platter, showing off the stuffing layer, and moisten with the sauce. Pass more sauce at the table.
• *Cut them in small pieces, as listed, for sauce. To serve roast vegetables, cut them as described on page 344.
• This stuffing is excellent for turkey and chicken.
• The meat business has changed in my lifetime. Most retail butchers don't get meat in large quarters and "primal" cuts that they skillfully divide any way we ask. Supermarket meat departments, I've found, only get pre-cut sections of the most popular meats, which require minimal cutting before they go out in the case.
• Unfortunately, the ideal veal breast for this recipe is not an item much in demand. It may take dedicated searching to find a butcher in your area who can fabricate the perfect piece: a 5-pound bone-in breast cut, from the tip. That's the very end of the breast, farthest from the front leg, and it has two advantages: lots of cartilage, which adds flavor and richness, and a naturally closed pocket at the tip, which makes stuffing easy.
• On the day we tested this recipe and took these photos, I couldn't get a breast tip anywhere. The piece shown here (which came from a Manhattan supermarket) is only 3 1/2 pounds and cut from the middle, not the closed end of the breast. As you can see, the pocket that I cut for the stuffing is open on both ends.
• I wondered, though, how would I keep the stuffing in? My first idea was to wrap bacon or prosciutto slices around the openings and tie them in place. But we didn't have any in the kitchen that day-and there was no time for shopping. So I did something quite acceptable in cooking-I improvised. I took a flap of veal meat that is hidden under the ribs, next to the cutting board in the photos. I trimmed and pounded it and made a sheet that covered the holes neatly. Tied in place, the patch worked fine. No stuffing was lost, and we enjoyed our roast and delicious sauce for lunch and supper too.
• One of the important-and challenging-lessons in cooking is that we cooks learn to make do with what we have.