Stuffed Chicken Roll

Stuffed Chicken Roll – it all sounds very complex and time consuming, doesn’t it?

Well, it really isn’t!

Deboned whole chicken, stuffed with halloumi cheese, sage & pine nuts, it makes for a delicious and impressive dinner party dish, that is actually quite simple to make.

I’ve really been wanting to debone a chicken for a while now…

My brother is a fancy-shmancy chef who creates these amazing Heston-style dishes that is almost {almost!} too pretty to eat and tastes even better!
{Which is often not the case when a dish is too pretty, in my humble opinion, but my little bro nails it!}

When we last visited them in the States, he bought himself a new toy – a sous vide machine – and spent days experimenting and creating amazing dishes…

One such dish was some or other chicken dish that involved deboning an entire chicken, stuffing it, rolling it and using meat glue {!!!! I know, right?!} to ensure a beautiful and seamless finish…

Then, just the other weekend, we visited friends and had a really yummy creamed spinach stuffed chicken roll for dinner.

Well, then I decided it was time to tackle this chicken roll business…

It really wasn’t that difficult to debone the chicken, you just need a very sharp knife and this YouTube video to guide you through it:

The important thing to remember is to not cut through the skin – the skin should stay intact to ensure a golden, juicy chicken roll.

Servings: 8
You will need:

1 deboned chicken {the one I used was 2 kg before deboning}
1/2 an onion, diced and sautéed in butter until soft and golden
a handful of fresh sage leaves
1 tbsp. toasted pine nuts
200 g halloumi cheese, sliced
2 cups of salmuera marinade

Marinade the deboned chicken in the salmuera dressing for a few hours, or even overnight.
{This is probably the most time-consuming part.}

Place the marinated, deboned chicken on your work surface, skin-side down.

{If you didn’t marinate the chicken, you need to season it now.}

Place the slices of halloumi cheese on the entire chicken area, followed by the sautéed onions.
Chop the sage and scatter on top, followed by the toasted pine nuts.

Start at one end and roll the chicken.

You can use butcher string to securely tie the chicken, or one of those elastic net thingies, or simply tuck in the open ends and secure with a toothpick or two.
You could even use meat glue! ;)

Bake at 160C for 90 minutes.

Somewhere halfway through the baking process, baste the top of the roll with the chicken juices, and continue to bake.

Once cooked, allow to rest for a while, then slice with a sharp knife and serve with your favourite greens or veggies.

This was so delicious, seriously!

And because you’re rolling the chicken, the meat gets distributed quite evenly, so in a slice you will get some juicy dark meat, along with white meat.

When you dish up, add a spoonful of the cooking juices for extra flavour and juiciness.

I’d love to hear about your chicken-deboning-experience and how your stuffed chicken roll went down!

Enjoy! x