Deck the halls – week three

Not sure about you but my calendar is getting pretty chockers, due to it being the festive season. Now I am not complaining as I love catching up with friends and family and cooking and celebrating and more cooking, but there are times when I look at my calendar and smile and cry at the same time. Because I think: how on earth will I fit everything in, how will I do this? I end up taking stock and realising I may not be able to do everything, but there is no harm in saying yes and seeing if I am up to it and if not, then that is o.k.

Usually this time of the year there will be loads of sweet recipes floating around to help you celebrate the festive season but I thought I would share with you a savoury recipe today.

I am sharing with you my festive Scarborough Fair stuffing, it is sublime and actually, you can have it anytime of the year. I love using this stuffing in a nice free range chicken but it is also lovely rolled up inside chicken breast ( Chicken Involtini or roulade ), in a turkey or in a turkey breast for Christmas.

The recipe below will usually be enough to stuff a #15 free range chicken. If you buy a bigger chicken or a turkey, just double the amount.

festive Scarborough Fair stuffing

Ingredients:

Half a loaf (about 5 or 6 slices) of bread. I use a good quality gluten free bread (Pure Bread) but you can use any bread you like.

100 grams salt reduced butter melted

½ bunch of chives chopped fine

1 or 2 grinds of Himalayan pink sea salt

Herbs- Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme if fresh ¼ of a bunch of each. If dried ¼ of a teaspoon of each dried herb.

½ cup of dried cranberries (also called craison’s)

Zest from half an orange (finely zested)

1-2 tablespoons of fresh orange juice (use the orange you zested)

Chicken stock- approx- ¼- ½ a cup. You will need to add a little at a time but not too much as you don’t want your stuffing to be to soggy.

Method

Tear bread into pieces and place in a food processor or kitchen wiz and process until you have fresh breadcrumbs.

Place fresh breadcrumbs in to a large bowl (I use a large stainless steel bowl).

Place herbs and melted butter in bowl and mix well. If using fresh herbs make sure you remove the stalks and chop fine.

Now add orange juice and zest and cranberries, salt and pepper and mix well.

Add a little stock and mix in stuffing mixture and keep adding until mixture is moist but not sloppy. It should not be too wet but does need to be moist (like a very moist cake but slightly wetter).

Now when all ingredients are mixed well, start stuffing it into your chicken by adding spoonful’s at a time.

Or you can butterfly a chicken breast or turkey breast and press the stuffing over the meat and roll up, you may need to secure with toothpicks or cooking twine.

Note this recipe is gluten free but you can use any bread you like.

Cook your meat to your required taste and enjoy!