Roast Chicken Stuffed With Sorrel

While roast chicken is fabulous even with little to no seasoning, it’s fun and exciting to dress it up a bit from time to time for a unique and extraordinary weekend meal with friends or family. Adapted from Country French Cooking by the editors of Sunset magazine, this recipe for roast chicken is stuffed with a mixture of butter, shallots, mushrooms, cream, breadcrumbs, Dijon mustard, basil, sage, thyme, parsley, sorrel, chicken liver, salt, and pepper. Filled with the flavors of the French Mediterranean, roast chicken stuffed with sorrel is best enjoyed with a hearty and robust French wine.

Ingredients:

1 whole chicken (about 3 or 4 lbs.)

3 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoon minced shallot or green onion

¼ lb. mushrooms, sliced

¼ cup fine dry bread crumbs

¼ cup whipping cream

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon dried basil

¼ teaspoon freshly ground pepper

¼ teaspoon ground sage

¼ teaspoon dried thyme

2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley

2 cups finely chopped fresh sorrel leaves (stems removed)

1 tablespoon butter, melted

Preparation:

1.       Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Finely chop the liver of the chicken and set aside. Rinse the chicken and pat dry.

2.       In a large skillet over medium heat, melt 3 tablespoons butter. Add the liver and sauté for 2 minutes. Remove and set aside.

3.       Add the shallot and mushrooms to the skillet and sauté for about 5 minutes, or until mushrooms are tender. Add the breadcrumbs, cream, mustard, salt, basil pepper, sage, and thyme. Remove the skillet from the stove and stir in the parsley, sorrel, and cooked liver.

4.       Stuff the chicken with the sorrel mixture. Place chicken, breast side down, in a roasting pan. Bake for 1 hour to 1 hour 25 minutes, or until an insta-read thermometer reads 160 degrees F.

5.       After 20 minutes of baking, baste with 1 tablespoon of melted butter. Wait another 30 minutes, and baste with the remaining melted butter, turning the chicken breast side up.

6.       Remove the fat from the roasting pan juices. Pour the remaining juices into a bowl and serve on the side to spoon over the chicken.