Roasted Chicken with Leek and Bacon Stuffing
A comforting roast chicken is just the ticket for cooler weekend evenings. Here, we’ve doubled down on flavour – loading the chook with a moist bacon, leek, sage, and apple stuffing and serving it with a leek and bacon gravy. Perfect with a seasonal salad and your favourite roasted veg.
Ingredients
1 Tbsp oil
6 rashers streaky bacon, cut into thin slices
50g butter, plus a little extra, softened, for the chicken
2 leeks, sliced
3 cups breadcrumbs (day old sourdough is great to use here)
6-7 sage leaves, finely chopped
1 green apple, cored, peeled, and grated
½ tsp salt
Zest of 1 lemon
1 egg, lightly beaten
3 Tbsp chopped chives
1 Bostock whole organic chicken
500ml chicken stock or water
2 Tbsp flour
Method
In a large frying pan, heat the oil and fry the bacon until golden. Remove from the pan and set aside. In the same pan, add the butter and leeks and fry gently until soft, approx. 10 minutes. Put half the bacon and leek mix into a large bowl and set the remainder aside in a saucepan for the gravy.
To the large bowl, add the breadcrumbs, sage, apple, salt, lemon zest, egg, and half the chives. Mix well and stuff the mix into the chicken cavity. Shape the remainder into balls. Tie the legs together with string. Smear the chicken with the extra butter and season with salt.
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees fan bake.
Put the chicken on a rack over a roasting dish and add the stock to the base of the dish. Roast for 75 minutes, topping up the stock with water during cooking. Add the stuffing balls to the rack after 45 minutes of cooking time.
Remove the rack from the roasting dish and allow the chicken to rest for at least 15 minutes while you make the leek and bacon gravy.
To make the gravy, gently heat the reserved bacon and leeks, then sprinkle in the flour and cook for 2 minutes or until nutty and golden. Add the stock from the pan (ideally 500ml) and cook for 10 minutes until lightly thickened.
To serve, cut the legs off the chicken, then slice the breast and wing sections. Arrange on a platter with the stuffing, then drizzle over the gravy and sprinkle over the chives. Delicious with our Spiced Pumpkin Wedges and Roasted Radicchio and Fig Salad.