Ballotine of Chicken Stuffed With Spinach and Mushrooms

 "Mumma, why do you keep watching that man cook on YouTube these days" was the question my little guy asked me a few days back. Yes, I have been watching quite a number of Jacques Pepin videos on youtube these past few days.

The theme for this week at IHCC is C'est Magnifique!, create a magnificent french dish of  Jacques P'epin.
 I decided to try his Ballotine of Chicken recipe, a  deboned chicken stuffed with a filling and roasted.  What's so magnificent about it? Well, I faced my greatest challenge: to debone a whole chicken and it does look quite "posh"  once it is done. So I have to say it looked pretty magnificent to me.

Since Hubby was returning home from an official trip abroad,  I decided to have a nice lunch ready for him. So I followed  Jacques Pepin's deboning method and  I  was actually able to do it, nicked my finger a few times and the meat did look a bit messy but it still looked pretty good.

I changed the filling a little by adding mushrooms for more flavour and followed this recipe I saw while looking for this recipe.  My little guy, who hated mushrooms,ate his chicken claiming it tasted very nice, little did he know his mother had sneaked in mushrooms, you should have seen his face when I told him one day later (LOL).

I forgot to add the celery and carrot to the sauce but it still tasted great. and used light soy as I used a stock cube to make stock, to use in the sauce.

Recipe : Chicken Ballotine stuffed with Spinach and Mushrooms  recipe adapted from Jacques P'epin's Chicken Ballotine with Spinach recipe from the series Essential P'epin

1200g chicken
1 tbsp butter
generous amount of ground black pepper
salt

Stuffing

Frozen Spinach, thawed ( I used roughly about 150g- 200g)
1-2 tbsp olive oil
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 slice of sandwich bread
about 50g mozzarella cheese, cut into cubes
6 button mushrooms
salt
pepper

Sauce
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 clove of garlic, finely chopped
1 tbsp light soy sauce
1  1/2 cup hot water
1 small chicken stock cube
1/2 tsp  corn flour
pepper
salt


First the filling,(The method is slightly adapted from the original recipe),  heat the garlic and then sweat the mushrooms after adding them. Add the spinach and do a quick stir fry, cool. While it's cooling whizz the sandwich bread and cheese in the food processor to make breadcrumbs, add the spinach mixture and pulse once or twice to mix. Taste adjust seasoning, I was pretty generous with the pepper.

Now for the hard part, debone the chicken. I had to watch the YouTube video several times to figure out how it was done.  It was a bit fiddly, but I did it! It wasn't pretty  but not that bad as you can see

not bad right?

Preheat the oven to Gas mark 6, 200 degrees celsius.

The filling should be cool before you use it, stuff the inside of the drumstick, and then in the middle of the chicken. Fold the sides. ( check the video link to see how )

Since I didn't have kitchen string I used toothpicks to secure ends and bits of foil to block any open areas so the filling stayed in.

I rubbed a little melted butter and then seasoned with a little pinch of salt and pepper. Carefully place in a roasting tray or large baking tray and roast for  45 minutes to 1 hour. The chicken should be cooked through and the skin nice and dark golden.

Remove the chicken, and let it rest.  place the tray on the stove, over medium-high heat and add the stock cube( yes yes its supposed to be fresh stock, but I didn't have any ) and 1 1/2 cups hot water. Use a wooden spoon to scrap any bits and pieces stuck on the tray, Once the sauce boils add finely chopped onion,  garlic and soy sauce, and simmer for 5 minutes. Mix the cornflour with 1 tbsp water pour this into the simmering sauce and whisk well so there isn't lumps.  Cook for another 2 minutes, add more water if it looks too little, taste adjust salt and pepper and remove from heat. Pour into a serving bowl or gravy boat Serve drizzled over the chicken, which is sliced into slices.

Bon Appetite !

Ps: I am not sure how french this dish is so hopefully it is...

Linking this to  this week's theme of "C'est Magnifique!" theme at I Heart Cooking Clubs.

Also linking this to  the event, Little Thumbs Up organised by Bake for Happy Kids and My Little Favourite DIY, and hosted by Diana from the Domestic Goddess Wannabe