How to Stuff and Cook a Boned Chicken

There are a great many Italian recipes for stuffing birds, especially chickens, ducks, turkeys, and geese. Almost all call for a boned bird, and this has a tremendous influence on the outcome of the dish: Since there is no skeleton to hold the meat up, it tends to settle during cooking, and as a result the stuffing is much firmer than it would be in an unboned bird.

Italian cooks take this into account in preparing stuffings; they generally use ground meats and other firmer ingredients, for example chestnuts or apples, rather than bread, and the stuffing serves to increase the amount of bird available, rather than act as a side dish. A chicken stuffed in the Italian way will easily serve 8, and there may be leftovers.

A Simple Stuffed Chicken Recipe

This is a very simple recipe of my mother-in-law's that works well year round; I prefer to serve it warm in the winter months, and cool in the summer. You'll need:

• A boned medium-to-large chicken
• 1 pound (500 g) ground veal
• 1/4 pound (125 g) ham
• 1/4 pound (125 g) mortadella
• 1/2 cup pitted black olives, chopped
• 1/2 cup pistachio nuts, chopped
• 3-5 leaves sage, shredded
• The leaves from a 6-inch (15 cm) sprig of rosemary, chopped
• 2 tablespoons chopped parsley
• Salt and pepper to taste