Sunday Roasted Butterflied Chicken And Stuffing

Sunday Roast Chicken and Stuffing
We wanted a streamlined version of roast chicken with plenty of stuffing to go around—and to solve the problem of cooking the stuffing to a safe temperature without drying out the delicate breast meat of the chicken.

The idea of roast chicken and stuffing is very appealing—moist, well-seasoned meat and plenty of flavorful stuffing to satisfy everyone at the table. But in reality, a chicken, even one upwards of 5 pounds (serving 4 to 6 people), doesn’t contain a cavity large enough to accommodate the amount of stuffing you’d need to serve everyone at the table. Sure, you can bake the stuffing separately in a baking dish, but you miss out on all the flavorful juices imparted from the chicken. Our aim, therefore, would be to develop a recipe for roast chicken and stuffing where we could somehow still mimic the flavorful benefits of cooking the stuffing inside the bird. A quick sauté of spinach, especially one with garlic and lemon, goes well alongside roast chicken (in addition to many other dishes). But this simple approach can often go wrong—overcooked spinach, burnt garlic, and too much oil—the list goes on. We would focus on avoiding these pitfalls to turn out a tasty side dish you can rely on again and again.

Stuffed Roast Butterflied Chicken


Use a traditional (not nonstick) roasting pan to prepare this recipe; the dark finish of a nonstick pan may cause the stuffing to over brown. If using a kosher chicken, skip step 1.

Serves 4

1/2	Cup table salt
1	Whole chicken (5 to 6 pounds), trimmed of excess fat, giblets discarded
1	Teaspoon vegetable oil or olive oil
	Ground black pepper
1	Recipe stuffing (see related recipes)

See Illustrations Below: Butterflying and Stuffing the Chicken

1. Dissolve salt in 2 quarts cold water in large container. Immerse chicken and refrigerate until fully seasoned, about 1 hour.

2. Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position; heat oven to 450 degrees. Remove chicken from brine and rinse under cold running water; pat dry with paper towels. Butterfly chicken, flatten breastbone, and tuck wings behind back (see illustrations 1 and 2). Rub skin with oil and sprinkle with pepper.

3. Following illustrations 3 through 5-construct foil bowl, spray inside of bowl with nonstick cooking spray, and place bowl in roasting pan. Gently mound and pack stuffing into foil bowl and position chicken over stuffing (chicken should extend past edges of bowl so that most of fat renders into roasting pan, not into foil bowl). Roast chicken until just beginning to brown, about 30 minutes. Rotate pan and continue to roast until skin is crisped and deep golden brown and instant-read thermometer registers 160 degrees in thickest part of breast, 175 degrees in thickest part of thigh, and 165 degrees in stuffing, 25 to 35 minutes longer. Using tongs, transfer chicken to cutting board; let rest 10 minutes.

4. While chicken rests, transfer stuffing from foil bowl to serving bowl; fluff stuffing with spoon. Cover stuffing with foil to keep warm. Carve chicken and serve with stuffing.

Step-by-Step: Butterflying and Stuffing the Chicken

1-Cut through the bones on either side of the back bone. Then remove and discard the back bone.

2-Flip the chicken over and use the heel of your handto flatten the breast bone, tuck the tips of the wings behind back.

3-Stack 2 12" squares of aluminum foil on top of each other. Fold edges to make an 8"x6" bowl.

4-Coat the inside of foil bowl with non stick cooking spray and pack with the stuffing.

5-Position chicken over the stuffing and adjust the foil bowl to fit the shape of the chicken cavity.

(Americas Test Kitchen and Cooks Illustrated)