Making Chicken More Interesting

Chicken Ballotine.  Photo by Rob Robitaille

I love chicken, but let's face it, chicken can be very boring.  My wife has a peculiar digestive system where she finds that she can no loner tolerate mammal meat. So, that just makes my life as the cook a bit more difficult as it cuts out many delicious options.  So, instead of viewing it as a problem, I am choosing to view it as a challenge.  After all, the French love their chicken.  So much so, that they made it their national bird.  Okay, it's the Gallic Rooster, but it is still a chicken.  And being lover of French food that I am, I have started looking that direction for help.  One thing that I have been meaning to try is a chicken ballotine.  A ballotine is meat fish or fowl that has been boned, stuffed, tied into a bundle, and roasted or braised, and served hot.  Often confused with galantine, which is similar, but poached and served cold.  You are probably thinking, as I did, that boning a whole chicken is difficult, but it is not.  If you don't mind handling chicken and have some basic knife skills, it is actually pretty easy.  My first time only took about ten minutes start to finish.  I am not going to describe how to do it, because there are tons of videos and instructions all over the web.  However, as I have probably stated before, Jacques Pepin is an absolute technical specialist with this, as he is with pretty much everything in the kitchen.  Just head to YouTube and search for "chicken ballotine" and it will probably be the first hit or just click here.  The video is only 10 minutes long.  He says that it should only take around a minute to bone out a chicken.  Yeah, maybe for a chef that does it all the time, but I think five minutes would be achievable for the amateur cook.  Mine didn't look as nice as Jacques', but all the mistakes are on the inside, so don't worry about it.

I made a simple stuffing of sauteed mushrooms with a shallot in butter.  Once the mushrooms had cooked down a bit, I added chicken stock, a bit of salt, and white pepper.  Once most of the liquid had been cooked away, I removed it from the heat and let it cool.  Once cool, I added some grated Swiss cheese and some bread crumbs.  Then I stuffed the bird, tied it up, and roasted it at 425 for about an hour.  A simple pan sauce made with the fond from the roasting pan completes the dish.  Relatively easy and very delicious, I know I will be making this for guests in the future.