Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking - Marcella Hazan [162]
6. Return to the upper part of the back. Pulling with your fingers and scraping against the bone with the knife, free the flesh from the rib cage, moving toward the breastbone. When you reach the breastbone, leave the skin attached to the bone’s crest for the time being.
7. Joined to the wing you will find the shoulder bone. Pry the meat loose from it, using your fingers when you can and the knife when you need to, then sever the bone at the joint where it meets the wing, and remove it. With poultry shears, cut off the end segment of the wing. Do not bother to remove the bones from that part of the wing still attached to the body.
8. Bone the other side of the bird, repeating the procedure described above, until the chicken is attached to its carcass only at the crest of the breastbone.
9. Turn the chicken over so that the breast faces you and the carcass rests on the counter. Pick up the two loose sides of the bird’s flesh, and lift them above the carcass, holding them with one hand. With the knife, carefully free the skin from its hold on the crest of the breastbone. You must be at your most careful here, because the skin is very thin where it is attached to the bone, and you can easily make a slit. Keep the cutting edge and the point of the knife turned away from the skin, scraping the blade along the bone’s surface. When you have completely loosened the flesh, discard the carcass. Your boned chicken is ready for the stuffing.
Ahead-of-time note The entire boning operation may be completed a day before stuffing the chicken.
Pan-Roasted Whole Boned Chicken with Beef and Parmesan Stuffing
For 6 servings
⅔ cup crumb, the soft, crustless part of bread, cut into 1-inch pieces
½ cup milk
1 pound ground beef, preferably chuck
2 tablespoons parsley chopped very fine
½ teaspoon garlic chopped very fine
Salt
Black pepper, ground fresh from the mill
⅔ cup freshly grated parmigiano-reggiano cheese
A 3- to 4-pound chicken, boned as directed
Trussing needle and string OR a darning needle and strong cotton thread
¼ cup vegetable oil
1 tablespoon butter
½ cup dry white wine
1. Put the cut-up crumb and the milk in a deep dish and let the bread steep for 10 or 15 minutes.
2. Put the ground beef, parsley, garlic, salt, pepper, and grated Parmesan into a bowl and mix thoroughly until the ingredients are evenly combined.
3. Gently squeeze the soaked crumb in your hand until it no longer drips milk. Add to the ground beef mixture, and softly knead with your hands until the ingredients are smoothly amalgamated.
4. Place the boned chicken skin side down on a work counter. Use some of the stuffing mixture to fill the places in the legs where the bones used to be. Take the rest of the mixture and shape it into an oval mass about as long as the chicken. Put it in the center of the chicken, and bring the bird’s skin around and over it, covering the stuffing completely. One edge of the skin should overlap the other by approximately 1 inch. Mold the mass under the skin with your hands to restore the chicken as closely as possible to its original shape.
5. Sew up the skin, starting at the neck and working down toward the tail. Use a sort of overcast stitch, looping the stitches over the edge of the skin. Don’t expect to do a perfectly neat job when you get to the tail, but do the best you can, making sure you sew up all openings. When done, put the needle safely out of harm’s way.
6. Choose a heavy-bottomed or enameled cast-iron pot that can subsequently contain the chicken snugly. Put in the oil and butter and turn on the heat to medium. When the butter foam begins to subside, put in the chicken, the stitched side facing down.