Spiced roast chicken with barley-pomegranate stuffing and georgian aubergine pkhali
Only the purée here is actually Georgian, but the chicken is inspired by Georgian food. It might seem like a lot of aubergine but when you’re only using the insides you don’t end up with much purée.
In the summer you can replace the pomegranate seeds in the stuffing with fresh cherries
Ingrediënten
FOR THE CHICKEN
- 80 g 2¾oz pearl barley
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 small onion finely chopped
- 3 garlic cloves chopped
- salt and pepper
- 100 g 3½oz feta cheese, crumbled
- 3 tbsp roughly chopped flat-leaf parsley leaves
- 3 tbsp roughly chopped coriander leaves
- 135 g 5oz pomegranate seeds
- 1.8 kg 4lb chicken
- 300 g 10½oz crème fraîche
- pinch of cayenne pepper
FOR THE AUBERGINES
- 4 aubergines
- olive oil
- 4 garlic cloves chopped
- 1 tsp sea salt flakes
- 1 tsp ground coriander
- 1¼ tsp cayenne pepper
- good pinch of ground fenugreek
- 150 g 5½oz walnuts
- 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 4 tbsp chopped flat-leaf parsley leaves
- ¾ tbsp white wine vinegar
Instructies
- Put the barley in a saucepan and cover with water.
- Bring to the boil, reduce the heat and simmer for 25 minutes.
- Drain and place in a mixing bowl.
- Pour the olive oil into a frying pan and sauté the onion until soft and pale gold, then add the garlic and cook for two minutes.
- Add to the barley and leave to cool, then add the seasoning, feta, herbs and pomegranate.
- Check for seasoning.
- Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/gas mark 4.
- Brush the aubergines with oil, pierce a few times with a fork, then put them on a baking sheet and roast in the oven for 40–50 minutes; they should be completely tender.
- Leave to cool.
- Remove the excess fat from the chicken cavity.
- Season the chicken inside, then put it in a roasting tin and stuff.
- If you want to secure the chicken, you can sew it up with kitchen string, or fix with small skewers.
- Truss the chicken if you want to.
- (I often leave the cavity gaping, the stuffing tumbling out, but it’s a matter of taste and time.
- ) Mix the crème fraîche with the cayenne and season.
- Spread all over the chicken, pushing it between the legs and body as well.
- Roast in the oven for 1 hour 15 minutes; cover the bird with foil if it starts to get too dark.
- Put the garlic in a mortar with the salt and grind to a paste.
- Pound the spices in, too.
- Add the walnuts, half the virgin oil and half the parsley and pound to a rough paste – I like it with chunks of walnuts – then stir in the rest of the oil, the vinegar, 1 tbsp of water and the rest of the parsley.
- Taste for seasoning.
- It will seem really assertive but it works with the aubergine flesh.
- Split the aubergines in half and scoop the insides into a bowl.
- Mash to a rough purée, then stir in the walnut mixture.
- When the chicken is done the juices between the leg and the breast should run clear, with no trace of pink.
- Allow to rest for 15 minutes, then serve with the aubergine.
- You don’t really need any more starch, but a bowl of yogurt is a good thing.
