Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Recipe experiment: Prosciutto wrapped chicken stuffed with fetta & chorizo

I threw this recipe together the other weekend when in Penola visiting mum & dad. Boning the chicken is the hardest part (but fun!) and the rest is dead easy :-) This was enjoyed by all eating it .. a good winter dish! Forgive me if the proportions aren't exact but I didn't measure as I made it up as I went along.

Prosciutto Wrapped Chicken Roll Stuffed with Chorizo and Fetta

1 X whole chicken (make sure it's free range!), size depends on how many you're feeding
1 X Chorizo Sausage, chopped into small pieces
A decent handful of crumbled Danish fetta (Danish fetta spreads better over the chicken)
2 X chopped shallots
3 X cloves garlic, crushed & chopped
Approx 6 slices Prosciutto
1 tbsp olive oil

Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees celcius.

First bone your chicken, if you don't know how to do this, it takes a bit of explaning and requires visual aids so you may want to Google it. Try the Gourmet Traveller website. Don't remove the skin as this helps keep the chicken moist when roasting.

Heat olive oil in pan over moderate to high heat and cook your garlic and shallots for a couple of minutes until shallots start to soften, add chorizo and fry for about 1 more minute. Allow to cool slightly.

Spread your de-boned chicken over a clean chopping board and nearby, lay out the prosciutto slices so they overlap each other slightly. Take the chorizo mix and spread evenly over the inside of the chicken. Crumble the fetta over the top of the chorizo.

Starting at the end closest to you, roll the chicken tightly and then carefully transfer onto the prosciutto slices you have laid down. You might need a second person to slide 3-4 pieces of kitchen string under the roast while you lift it up slightly so as to not let the filling fall out. Tie the string at equal distances along the length of the roast and then place in a pan on a roasting rack.

Roast in oven, this again will depend on the size of your chicken but I found mine took about 1.5 hours.

Slice thickly and serve, you will find that the prosciutto sticks to the skin of the chicken and will hold it's shape well. i like to serve it with some green veg as it's very rich!

Yum!