Stuffed roasted chicken (Pollo relleno rustido)
Four servings: 1 big-sized whole chicken; 250 g of pitted prunes; 250 g of
raisins; 250 g of dried peach and apricot, cut into cubes; 100 g of pine nuts; 1
small black truffle (it is indeed a very expensive fungus than can sometimes
be substituted by truffle oil, although you must be careful to not buy artificial
truffle oil); 250 g of sausages, cut into half-inch long pieces; some lard; olive
oil; and a large glass of brandy.
Preparation: Soak the prunes, raisins, and the dried fruits in brandy for at
least 4 hours. Fry the sausages in a casserole with some lard; when the
sausages are brown, add the fried fruit (drained) the pine nuts, the truffle, cut
into slices, and season to taste. Let the preparation simmer for 20 minutes on
a mild fire.
Rinse the chicken with some water, both in the inside and in the outside, dry
thoroughly, season with salt and pepper and spread some lard inside and
outside. When the stuffing is cool, you can start filling the inside of the
chicken using both orifices; the chicken must be full up. Next, sew the
orifices, cross the legs and tie them; do the same with the wings (This is to
keep the limbs of the bird close to its body and so prevent the meat to dry out
in the oven).
Finally, place the chicken in a deep roasting pan containing some lard, oil, the
wine used to soak the fruit, and the oil and juices from frying the stuff, and
move the chicken to a preheated oven. You can initially used the grill of the
oven to brown the whole surface of the chicken by turns at 210ºC (410ºF)
(you must therefore very attentive not to burn it), and then lower the
temperature to 175ºC (350ºF). From time to time, open the oven door and wet