This recipe might be a bit time consuming at first, but once you learn how to debone and roll the chicken, the actual work isn’t all that bad.
Ingredients 1 chicken, medium to large
For the filling:
6 shallots, chopped
6 white mushrooms, chopped
3-4 tbs butter
White wine
12oz ground beef, the fattier the better - 30% fat is ideal, 10% fat might be too dry. [For the roulade in the photos I’ve used “bork” which is a mix of ground beef and bacon, yielding about 25% fat]
6 chicken liver, chopped into relatively small pieces
1 egg
Salt & pepper
Optional: chopped parsley, other seasoning
For the brine:
1 gallon of tap water (or enough to completely submerge the chicken in a bowl that is not too much larger than the chicken).
¾ cup kosher salt
1 cup white sugar
1 tbs ground black pepper
1 tbs cayenne
Olive oil
1 block of the wood of your choice (around 1.5-1.75 oz) [for the roulade in the photos I’ve used oak]
Direction
First, brine the chicken. Feel free to use the brine of your choice, or use my brine.
Don't heat up the water, cold or at room temperature is fine. Mix all the ingredients well until the salt and sugar are dissolved. Brine the bird for 24 hours, covered in the fridge.
Next, heat up 2 tbs of butter in medium frying pan. Once the butter begins to melt, add the shallots and sauté several minutes until soft and golden. Add a glug of white wine (say 2 tbs) and continue sautéing a minute. Add the mushroom, the remainder butter, and sauté several additional minutes until the mushroom are golden. Season with salt and pepper.
Transfer to a bowl and let cool (see photo 1). In the meantime, debone the chicken. By the time you finish deboning, the shallot-mushroom mix will have cooled down sufficiently.
If you don’t know how to debone a chicken, there are several tutorials online, such as this one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dworCHCm3ts and this one:
http://www.countrycleaver.com/2013/07/how-to-debone-a-chicken.htmlIn the photos I didn’t debone the chicken perfectly (see photo 2) - I’m learning too, and each time I get better and faster at it.
Add the beef, liver, egg and herb (if you like, I didn’t use any herbs) to the shallot-mushroom mix, season with salt and pepper (or any seasoning you like), and mix until well incorporated.
Using your fingers, gently separate the skin from the meat. This will allow you to roll the skin nicely around the stuffed meat, and will also allow you to pound the chicken breast until a bit flattened, to achieve a more uniform roll. In the attached photos I have not done either of these steps, but I think they will work better than what I have done.
Spread the final mix on the deboned chicken (see photo 3), roll the chicken as tight as feasible, and encase it with the skin.
Truss it with twine. In the photos I haven’t trussed it properly (see photo 4). This is a better way:
https://buscemis.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/20130322_174326.jpg Drizzle olive oil and using your hands, coat the entire bird. Season the skin with salt and pepper, or the seasoning of your choice. At this point you may leave the chicken in the fridge for several hours, or proceed to smoke it.
Smoke for 2 hours on 225F, then bump the dial up to the max (beyond the 250 mark), and smoke for another 1¼ hours. See the results in photo 5.
At this point you can let it cool a bit and eat it warm (see photo 6), or, which I think tastes better, let it cool completely in the fridge and eat the following day (see photos 7 & 8 ).
Yummy!
Note: in this recipe I brine the chicken, as I always brine whole chicken. I wonder if anyone has tried something similar without brining and whether brining is necessary for this type of recipe. Any thoughts?
