Roast Chicken With Apricot Stuffing Recipes

ROASTED CHICKEN WITH HOLIDAY STUFFING

Steps:

• Combine marinade ingredients in a bowl. Rub chicken inside and out with marinade. Cover and refrigerate for 4 hours or overnight.
• Stuffing: Soak the dried chestnuts overnight in water. Place them in a pan with water and simmer, covered, until soft, about 30 minutes; drain. Discard the stems and thinly slice the mushroom caps. Place a wok over high heat until hot. Add oil, swirling to coat sides. Add sausage; stir-fry until sausage is slightly crisp, 1 1/2 to 2 minutes. Add shallots, green onions, chestnuts, mushrooms and cilantro. Cook for 1 minute. Stir in oyster-flavored sauce, and sesame oil. Remove pan from heat and add rice; mix well. Let stuffing cool.
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Just before roasting, place stuffing inside chicken; enclose with skewers. Place chicken, breast side up, on a rack in a roasting pan. Insert a meat thermometer into the thickest part of thigh meat, without touching bone. Bake until thermometer registers 180 to 185 degrees, about 1 to 1 1/2 hours. During the last half of roasting time, baste chicken occasionally with pan juices.

CHICKEN WITH ORANGE-APRICOT STUFFING

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 180°C
• Heat olive oil in a medium heavy-based frying pan over a low to medium heat and gently cook shallots for 3-4 minutes or until softened.
• Add the rice and stir until rice grains are coated well with the oil. Add the orange rind, 1 1/4 cups of the orange juice, apricots and cardamom. Bring to the boil.
• Reduce heat to low and simmer, covered, for 15 minutes or until the liquid has been absorbed and the rice is tender. Remove from heat, transfer mixture to a bowl and cool completely.
• Wipe chicken inside and out with paper towel. Spoon the cooled rice mixture into the chicken cavity and seal opening with skewers or toothpicks. Place chicken in a roasting pan.
• Combine remaining orange juice and brown sugar in a jug and pour over chicken.
• Roast for 1 1/2 hours, basting occasionally with pan juices. Check the chicken has cooked through -the juices run clear when the chicken thigh is pierced with a skewer at the thickest part.
• Serve chicken with the rice stuffing.

APRICOT & HAZELNUT STUFFING

Steps:

• Fry onions in the butter. Stir in nuts; fry until golden. Remove from the heat, add apricots, breadcrumbs, parsley and lemon zest. Mix in the egg and season. Use half to stuff the neck end of the turkey; shape the rest into balls.
• Put the balls in a buttered baking dish, then drizzle with oil. Bake for 30 mins until golden, or roast them around the turkey.