The Cookbook Junkies

Chicken Stuffed with Meatballs and a #giveaway

by 102 Comments

A while back when traveling to New York, I downloaded Beyond the Pasta to read on the flight. The book shares the story of Mark Leslie, a theater actor from Alabama and avid cook, who lived in Italy for a month with a family to be immersed in the food and culture. I enjoyed this book from the first page and one of the passages stayed with me. It involved the Nonna in that book making a meatball stuffed chicken.

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I tackled something like it yesterday. I deboned a chicken with the help of a video from the great Jacques Pepin and this knife. My big mistake was using too small of a bird – so I will try this again with a larger chicken – just so that it appears fuller.

The night before roasting – I seasoned the whole chicken with salt, pepper and placed slices of thin garlic under the skin along with some basil. Be sure to season in all the crevices – where the leg and thigh bone were and I placed garlic in there as well.

I had leftover meatballs and sauce in the freezer from a prior meal – I made basic meatballs – bread soaked in milk, Romano cheese, beef and pork mix, parsley, seasonings, onions and garlic – these meatballs I happen to coat in bread crumbs to make them extra crispy. For the sauce – I use a mix up of Marcella Hazan’s famous Tomato Butter sauce: to mine I add garlic cloves and end up pureeing the entire batch. I finish with fresh herbs at the end.

The bird came out of the fridge and I let it come to temperature for about 20 minutes while I prepped everything else. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

I had some leftover focaccia that I cubed up and made croutons to spread under the rack of a small roasting pan.  You can use any leftover stale bread or totally skip this part – but those croutons were incredibly tasty.

Back to the bird — with the bird skin side down – I broke up about eight meatballs and stuffed it into all the cavities and down the middle. I added some extra sauce to the top before closing it up. I then folded one side of the chicken over and secured it with poultry lacing skewers so that everything stayed tucked in – I used about five skewers. Season the bird liberally on the skin side with salt and pepper. Place the bird on the rack – and drizzle with olive oil.

Place into the preheated oven to roast for approximately 40 to 45 minutes. My bird was small – so it was done in 40 minutes. You can check the temperature at the thigh and in the meatball stuffing to make sure the meatball mix is at 165 degrees. After removing it from the oven – I drizzled some olive oil on top and tented it with foil until I was ready to plate. After about ten to fifteen minutes – the bird is still hot but slices so much easier.

I served the chicken with some pasta and extra sauce and meatballs and it was a huge hit. The chicken was flavorful, tender and juicy and when sliced made a great presentation.

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Random Number Generator picked comment #29 Elaine Charest.

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Comments

  9. 9

    I’m very up for more recipes playing around with stuffing a whole deboned bird 🙂 Glad this came out for you!

    Reply
  10. 10

    I have seen this type of thing, but years and years ago…maybe one of my auntis made it…And sure, would love to try it. I sometimes get chickens at my poultry guy that are around 6 lbs.

    Reply
  16. 16

    I would that a try. One question, could you add some pasta sauce with the meat balls, or would that give it to much liquid?

    Reply
    • 17

      Yes, Arthur – I put extra sauce in there as well – I think I mentioned that in the post. My sauce is a little thick – so it worked out great.

      Reply
  17. 18

    I have to admit, I sat here last night, talking with a friend, wondering if I would dare try this. For one thing, I can barely cut up a whole chicken. As early as a year ago I was still missing the joints. To bone one may very well be beyond my capabilities. For another, who ever thought to put meatballs in a chicken? They just don’t sound compatible. That’s the problem, it sounds weird and that sorta makes me want to try it even more. I was so intrigued I ordered the cookbook (.99 cents plus shipping) after staring at this meal for long minutes. If I win, I’ll leave you with this cookbook to send to a second winner since my copy will be arriving soon. I’d still love to have the meatball cookbook if I win, however. 🙂 My daughter and I did decide to give this a try someday. Thanks for adding the link to boning a chicken, I’ll need it.

    Reply
  21. 22

    I’m always game for trying recipes that challenge me and teach me new techniques. I’d give it a try!

    Reply
  22. 23

    I love Italian food so much, I had to find an Italian family to join. I got the best when I married my husbsnd.
    I would definitely try a recipe that doesn’ have to have pasta.

    Reply
  30. 31

    In my mid-20s I had moved into a house in San Diego that was big enough to host my large family, so I invited everyone for Christmas at my house. I was just getting into cooking and wanted to do something extra fancy, so I turned to my collection of cooking shows I had recorded on VHS — it was a PBS special of Jacques and Julia doing a boned stuffed turkey. The TV setup was in my bedroom on the second floor so I would watch a piece, run downstairs and do some cutting til I panicked, run upstairs and rewind, over and over.
    I didn’t have an extra pair of hands to tie it up so I improvised by taping long segments of kitchen twine on the kitchen counter and laid the bird on top of them. It all turned out beautifully but I’ll never forget the workout I got running up and down those damn stairs!

    Reply
  44. 45

    I would love to try something like this! I’m always looking for new and unexpected ways of making things. I get tired of eating the same old same old….

    Reply
  48. 49

    Love the idea of using stale focaccia bread to soak in the yummy goodness while roasting the bird !!

    Reply
  72. 73

    I would try that, especially after watching the YouTube video of Jacques Pépin de-boning a chicken.

    Reply
  93. 94

    I’d love to try this, and I’ve already watched the Jacques Pépin video on deboning a chicken. I’m ready!

    Reply
  96. 97

    sigh. I’m beginning to think it will be December before it cools off enough for me to think about roasting a chicken.

    Reply

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