Chicken stuffed with courgettes and ricotta
This was inspired by Richard Olney. He has quite a few recipes for chicken with some kind of stuffing under the skin in his classic book Simple French Food (if you like serious food writing and elegant prose, this should be on your book shelf). One of the joys of a dish such as this is that it needs little else. It already contains vegetables and its own kind of ‘embellishment’. A green salad or some roast tomatoes and a grain or bread is all you need with it. Oh, and a bottle of decent wine.
Ingrediënten
- finely grated zest of 1 unwaxed lemon
- 4 garlic cloves crushed
- olive oil
- 2 kg 4lb 8oz chicken
- 400 g 14oz courgettes
- ½ tbsp salt
- 30 g 1oz unsalted butter
- pepper
- ½ onion finely chopped
- 130 g 4¾oz ricotta
- 40 g 1½oz grated Parmesan
- 1 egg lightly beaten
- 25 g scant 1oz fresh breadcrumbs
- leaves from a small bunch of basil chopped
Instructies
- Mix the lemon zest, half the garlic and 3½ tbsp of olive oil together and rub all over the chicken, inside and out.
- Cover loosely with cling film and leave to marinate in the fridge, turning every so often, for a couple of hours.
- Bring to room temperature before cooking.
- Trim the tops and bottoms from the courgettes, then cut them into julienne strips.
- Layer them up in a colander, sprinkling with the salt as you do so.
- Set over a bowl so that the juices can drip out.
- You really need to do this as you need to dry the courgettes before cooking.
- Once they’ve drained for one hour, take handfuls and squeeze out as much moisture as you can, really well.
- Melt half the butter in a frying pan and sauté the courgettes for 10 minutes.
- They should be golden.
- Season with pepper (you won’t need salt) and set aside.
- Sauté the onion in the rest of the butter in the same pan until soft but not coloured.
- Add the rest of the garlic and cook for another three minutes or so.
- Leave the courgettes and the onion mixture to cool completely.
- Mash the ricotta in a bowl and add the cooled vegetables, the Parmesan, egg, breadcrumbs and basil.
- Taste for seasoning.
- Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/gas mark 4.
- Carefully loosen the skin of the chicken breast and legs as much as possible, without tearing, to create an area you can stuff (see technique for Roast chicken with mushrooms and sage butter under the skin).
- Now take small handfuls of the ricotta mixture and work it in under the skin, pressing the skin on top to spread the stuffing.
- All the stuffing should go in.
- Season the outside of the chicken.
- Roast in the hot oven for 1½ hours, basting from time to time.
- Leave to rest – well insulated under a double layer of foil – for 15 minutes before serving.
