I think that roast chicken is hands-down my favourite roast meat. It used to be a celebration meal in our house and I can remember sitting around our dinner table at the age of about 7 and having a Roast Chicken dinner to celebrate that my parents had finished paying off our house. I distinctly remember being in our pyjamas and having a glass of champagne and that we had roast chicken for supper.

(quite) a few years down the line: the house has had a number of gorgeous renovations and is now back on the market, because other than Christmas holidays it is far too much space for just my parents… and I am now making the roast chicken.

A few years ago, my mother started to make stuffing for her roast chickens and now I’ve decided that this should be a staple. On my quest to keep challenging myself in the kitchen and now having 5 people to eat the food instead of 2, I thought it was finally time to push myself to the whole roast chicken step. The December 2010 issue of Fresh Living (the Pick n Pay magazine) has a recipe in conjunction with Safari dried fruit and nuts for a Festive Flavour Roast Chicken with stuffing. The stuffing made enough for two chickens and so we have had it twice in the last week and have decided that this will definitely become a Christmas staple, but perhaps a little rich for a weekly meal.

The smell that flooded the kitchen each time we opened the oven to baste the chicken made us all drool with anticipation and the final product did not disappoint. Having a decent chicken to start with is really important and farm fresh free range chickens are the best to go for. The recipe uses a 1.4kg chicken, but the first chicken that we had was about 2kg. Cooking time for this monster was 2 and a half hours at 180 degrees centigrade. To check if it is cooked, cut into the meat at the base of the leg and make sure that there is no pink showing….at least that’s what I did.

Serve this with some potatoes (roast or garlic and herb) and some veggies, whichever you prefer, for a wonderful all around meal. Is your mouth watering yet?

Festive Flavour Roasted chicken with stuffing

Serves 4 – 6

Stuffing

• 30ml (2 Tbsp) butter of margarine
• 1 large onion, finely chopped
• 2 celery sticks (about 60g), coarsely chopped
• 1 Granny Smith apple, peeled, coarsely chopped
• 125g pitted prunes, coarsely chopped
• 80g pecan nuts, coarsely chopped
• 250ml (1 cup) fresh, coarse breadcrumbs
• 15ml (1 Tbsp) chopped fresh mixed herbs or 5ml (1 tsp) dried mixed herbs
• 30ml (2 Tbsp) fresh lemon juice
• 5ml (1 tsp) grated lemon rind
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste (I didn’t add any of this as I prefer to let those eating, to season to their own tastes)

Basting Sauce

• 60ml (quarter cup) cooking oil
• 45ml (3 Tbsp) fresh lemon juice
• 45 ml (3 Tbsp) port or red wine (remember: if it’s not worth drinking, it’s not worth including in your cooking!)
• 5ml (1 tsp) Worcestershire sauce
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 30ml (2 Tbsp) freshly chopped mixed herbs or 10 ml (2 tsp) dried mixed herbs
• Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste (as above)

Rinse the chicken in cold water and set aside.

Stuffing: Melt the butter in a large heavy-based frying pan and saute onion and celery for a few minutes until soft. Transfer to a large bowl. Add all of the remaining ingredients and mix well.

Fill the cavity of the chicken and push under the skin of the breast as far as possible. Be careful not to break the skin. To get more in, you can use scissors or a knife to cut the skin running down the centre of the chicken breasts. (Put stuffing wherever you can as there is likely going to be way too much stuffing. Alternatively use about half and freeze the other half for the next time.)

Basting: Mix all ingredients.

Place chicken in a roasting pan in and place in a preheated oven of 180 degrees centigrade for about 1 and a half hours. Baste chicken with extra sauce and sauce from the pan approximately every half hour.

Carve and serve.

(Variation: use tangy apricots instead of prunes)

This stuffing could also be quite nice for a Turkey. All in all, I did well for my first Roast chicken and I’m proud to say that I have been promoted to contributing the cooking of the Christmas dinner and not just peeling, chopping and eating. Right, what’s next?

Wishing you a wonderful Festive Season and bright and shiny start to 2011!