Boned Chicken Stuffed with Rice, or Pollo Disossato Farcito di Riso: I have occasionally come across stuffings that are based on wild rice. This Neapolitan recipe instead uses domestic rice, and will work nicely in an elegant meal. It's drawn from Cavalcanti, the great 19th century Neapolitan gastronome. To serve 6 you'll need:
Prep Time: 60 minutes
Cook Time: 2 hours,
Ingredients:
- The bird:
- A chicken weighing about 3 pounds (1.5 k)
- Kosher salt
- The juice of a lemon
- --
- The stuffing:
- 3/4 cup (160 g) rice
- 2 slices mild Italian salami, shredded
- 2 ounces (50 g) sharp provolone, diced
- 2 ounces prosciutto, diced
- An egg
- Salt & Pepper to taste
- --
- The sauce:
- 10 ounces (250 g) veal
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste
- 1 pint (500 ml) tomato sauce
- A chunk of onion
- A piece of celery
- 1/2 cup olive oil
- Basil
- Parsley
- Marjoram
- A clove
- Salt & pepper to taste
Preparation:
Bone the bird (see below link to instructions if need be) or have it boned, keeping the carcass. Wash the bird well, pat it dry, and rub it inside and out with the lemon juice and the kosher salt.While doing this, preheat your oven to 430 f (200 C).
Wrap the carcass in aluminum foil and put it back into the bird; sew the cavity shut, leaving only a small opening towards its back end. Put the bird in a pan and roast it for about a half hour, basting it with a little white wine if need be.
While it's roasting, mince the onion, celery, and the other herbs. Combine them with the meat and brown the mixture with the oil in a saucepan; at this point stir in the tomato paste diluted in a little warm water, and then add the tomato sauce. Simmer the sauce until it thickens some.
While the sauce is simmering, boil the rice for five minutes, drain it, and stir it into the sauce; add the remaining stuffing ingredients too. Next, remove the chicken from the oven, carefully untie the back end, and extract the carcass. Fill the cavity with the rice mixture and sew the opening almost completely shut, though you should leave a small opening for the addition of more liquid (or sauce that didn't fit at first), should it be necessary.
Return the bird to the oven and continue roasting it until it is done (a skewer inserted in the hip joint will yield clear juices). Let the bird cool, untie the back, and carefully remove the stuffing without breaking it up. Arrange the stuffing and the chicken on a platter; at table, slice and serve the stuffing with the chicken pieces, and, if you want, more sauce.
