Nigella Lawson's Georgian Stuffed Chicken

Nigella Lawson is one of my most favourite chef, even though she insists that she is not a chef, but in my opinion, she is very much a fantastic chef in my books! I like her fuss-free style and down to earth approach of preparing meals, quite unlike those michelin stars chefs who constantly craves for perfection down to the last detail! And some with very nasty temper too! haha! And she is one who is not afraid of showing her flaws in some of her food preparation. There was one cake recipe from one of her books that she made for photo taking and in the photo it shows that the cake is not perfectly smooth, as some of it got stuck to the baking pan. Nigella says that, she could make the bake again for the perfect photo but she did not want to, because these thing happens to all of us. She's right and it does not mean that you are any less a good baker!

When I think of Nigella, roasted chicken comes to mind, I don't know why, I guess the minute some chefs came to mind, a particular dish, maybe a specialty of the chef would follow, how about you?

For me, when it is Nigella, it is roasted chicken! What about you, when Nigella comes to mind, what dish or bake that you think of instantly? Very interesting....!! I would really love to know!

A couple of months ago when I knew that I was going to co-host this month's event, with The Domestic Goddess as the featured chef, I wasted no time in searching for a roast chicken recipe.

Found an interesting one from one of my cookbooks collection, "The New York Times Chicken Cookbook". There is a Nigella Lawson recipe for a roasted chicken stuffed with rice. Already sounds so delicious to me!

The roasted chicken is really very simple, it's the stuffing that is very tasty! Firstly you would need to cook the rice to be stuffed into the chicken cavity before roasting. Basmati rice is used here, washed and soaked for 20 minutes, drain before use. Firstly saute some onions and garlic until brown, add the rice, chopped dried cherries which I've replaced with dried cranberries, water and salt to taste. Use chicken stock if you have, it would definitely be more tasty. Bring it to a boil, cover, reduce heat to low and continue to cook for another 15 minutes until rice are cooked. Fluff up rice and season with salt and pepper to taste together with a generous amount of chopped fresh parsley.

Spoon the rice into the cavity of chicken, secure with toothpicks, rub chicken with butter and some salt, and bake for 1-1/2 hours or until chicken is cooked, skin is crisp and golden.

While the chicken is quite simple and good as it is, I think it would be even better with some added herbs instead of just butter. Which I did, I baked this again about a month later, due to requests from my family, yes, they requested for this again, they love the rice. I rubbed the chicken with some fresh thymes, a squeeze of lemon, a generous sprinkling of coarse black pepper, salt and butter. And this time I cooked more rice, added more dried cranberries. Some of the rice goes to the cavity of the chicken before roasting, and the rest served at the dining table.

The rice is very tasty and delicious, we love the sweet sour bite of the dried cranberries in the rice, and the fragrant rice from the parsley. I served the chicken and rice with some greens, cherry tomatoes and a potato salad, another delicious salad from Nigella, which I shall be sharing in the coming posts. We really enjoyed our dinner, well, twice!

Nigella Lawson's Georgian Stuffed Chicken
(adapted from "The New York Times Chicken Cookbook")
2 (5-pound) chickens
6 tablespoons butter
2 onions, peeled and finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 cup basmati rice
2 cups water
1/2 cup dried sour cherries, roughly chopped
salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup chopped parsley

Remove any fat from cavities of chickens, and place fat in a wide saucepan. Add 4 tablespoons of the butter and place over medium heat. When butter melts, add onions and garlic. Saute until onions soften and begin to brown, about 5 minutes.
Discard any remaining hard bits of chicken fat. Add rice and chopped cherries to pan. Stir well, and add 2 cups water and salt to taste. Bring to a boil, cover and reduce heat to as low as possible. Cook for 15 minutes. Meanwhile, heat oven to 425 degrees.
Season rice mixture with salt and pepper to taste and stir in parsley. Spoon rice into cavities of both chickens, and secure openings with toothpick.
Place chickens in a roasting pan and rub with remaining 2 tablespoons butter. Place in oven and roast until skin is crisp and golden and juices run clear when pierced near the thigh with a knife, 1-1/2 to 2 hours. Discard toothpicks and allow chicken to rest before carving. Serve each portion of chicken with some stuffing.

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I'm linking this post to Cook Like A Star, where the featured chef for this month is NIGELLA LAWSON. Cook Like A Star is an event organized by Zoe from Bake For Happy Kids, and the co-hosts for this month are Anuja from Simple Baking and me, Joyce from Kitchen Flavours. Cook or bake any of Nigella Lawson's recipes and link your posts to any of the hosts' linky which will stay open for the whole month of August. All submissions to this event must be current posts, published within the current month of this event, any older posts will be deleted. Please mention and link Cook Like A Star somewhere in your post. Do join us, everyone is welcome!

To view all the delicious entries at Cook Like A Star, July month, where the featured chef is Curtis Stone, head on over to Bake For Happy Kids, Eat Your Heart Out and Life Can Be Simple.