I’m Back!
OMG!?! I have not posted in 3 months! Why? Why? Why?
Well, this is because I’ve been traveling non-stop for the past 3 months. And although I did spend a lot of time in Manila for the holidays, it was hectic with seeing family, getting re-acquainted friends, and…holding various business meetings.
To be honest, I didn’t also cook so much even though hubby and I were staying in an extremely nice condo complete with a fully furnished kitchen in Makati. Apart from cooking Christmas and New Year’s dinner for the family, we mostly ate out :)
And although I’m a tad annoyed at myself for not ALWAYS remembering to whip out my camera or mobile phone to take pics when we’re eating out, the ‘great (eating) experiences’ hubby and I have had trump that :)
Still, I’ll be posting what I did remember to take pictures of in the coming days. Plus, since I’m back home now… here’s to more home cooking!
Chicken Stuffed with Yellow Rice and Chorizo
LAST Christmas dinner, I de-boned and stuffed two free-range chickens. For one chicken, I prepared a traditional Filipino stuffing to replicate the classic chicken relleno (i.e., ground pork, raisins, carrots, pickles, etc. etc.). However, since hubby’s family was dining with us, I thought they might find this stuffing strange so I made a Spanish-inspired version too.
Both stuffed chickens got oohs and ahhs when they were served, especially when I mentioned that I de-boned the chickens all by myself! However, it was obvious that hubby and my in-laws were partial to the Spanish-inspired one.
THIS year, we’ll be celebrating with MY family and so I thought the classic chicken relleno it will be then on our Christmas dining table. But after telling my mom and brothers about this yellow-rice an chorizo stuffed chicken… they want that too! Oh well, 2 chickens to debone again then!
The pictures for the recipe below were taken 6 months ago, when I made this version for a dinner with some friends.
Ingredients:
1.5 kilo free-range chicken (deboned)
1 cup soy sauce
2 tbsp liquid seasoning
1 tbsp sesame oil
1 lemon
black pepper
1 pack Lassie yellow rice (makes about 3 cups of rice when cooked)
250 grams chorizo
dried herbs
3 hard-boiled eggs
Procedure:
- De-bone the chicken without breaking its skin. I used a free-range chicken because I find the meat to be juicier and tastier but it’s really up to you. As I mentioned above, I de-bone the chicken myself but I leave the drumstick bones because I personally like the chicken to… well, still look like a chicken after it’s been baked!
- Prepare the marinade by combining the soy sauce, liquid seasoning, the juice of 1 lemon, sesame oil, black pepper, and some dried herbs. (I used dried onion leeks.)
- Marinate the de-boned chicken at least overnight!
- Boil the eggs; peel them and then set them aside.
- Cook the yellow rice according to package directions and set it aside.
- ‘Grind’ the chorizo using a food processor.
- Heat a bottom-heavy pan and brown the chorizo.
- Add the chorizo to the yellow rice.
- Now take the chicken and start stuffing it with the yellow rice-chorizo mix and the hard-boiled eggs.
- Stitch up the chicken and use toothpicks to keep the wings and drumsticks ‘attached’ to the chicken.
- Bake the stuffed chicken in a 180C pre-heated oven for about 1.5 hours.
- If you find the top skin or the wing or drumstick skins getting too dark you can cover them in aluminum foil… or do what I did, cover them with bacon strips!
I see that there are de-boned chickens in the supermarkets here in Makati now. Will have to check if that’s not the ‘cheatly de-boned’ kind; i.e., the length of the back of the chicken has been sliced to simply ‘pull out’ the chicken bones.
How's that 'Captain Hook' needle for perfectly closing up a chicken!
Get ready for the oohs and ahhs too when you serve!
