We were busy yesterday afternoon making a real feast. The Maltese way of doing chicken is special. We stuff it with mince and a few other things, cook it in broth and then roast in the oven. We added in a few potatoes too. We had left over stuffing so I ran down to the local Turkish store and bought some marrows. I filled these and placed them in the broth along with other chopped vegetables. What were we left with? Broth, stuffed marrows, roast potatoes and the center piece of the table, one stuffed bird. No one is going hungry in this house.
One of my first posts was stuffed marrows (qarabaghli mimli bil-laham). I had baked them but this time they were cooked in the broth. The broth not only was a vegetable broth but a broth flavoured from the chicken, stuffing and stuffed marrows. We also love to serve the broth (and any soup for that matter) with a wedge of lemon. Mouthwatering to say the least.
I also roasted a dish of potatoes. You can add the potatoes to the same dish as the chicken if you have a big enough dish or roast them separately like I did. There is a traditional Maltese way of roasting potatoes which I will show you another time.
We used some of the roast chicken for lunch today in our sandwiches and dinner tonight will also be the remaining leftover broth, chicken, marrows and potatoes.
- For the stuffing:
- 1tbs olive oil
- 1 onion diced
- 2 cloves of garlic chopped
- 3 rashes of bacon or ham diced
- 2 tbs tomato paste
- 500 g beef minced
- 500 g pork minced
- ½ cup parmesan grated
- ½ cup cheddar grated
- 4 eggs lightly beaten
- 1 bunch parsley chopped
- 3 tbs rosemary dried or fresh
- 1 tbs thyme dried or fresh
- For the chicken:
- 1 whole chicken
- toothpicks to truss the chicken
- For the broth:
- 1 tbs olive oil
- 1 onion chopped
- 1 stick celery chopped
- 2 medium carrots chopped
- 2 tbs tomato paste
- Boiled water to fill a large pot to half way
- 1 chicken stock cube crumbled
- ½ kohlrabi chopped
- ¼ cabbage chopped
- Remaining marrows from the filled marrows chopped (if stuffed marrows are not being cooked in broth then 1 medium marrow chopped or 1 courgette chopped)
- 100 g potatoes chopped (optional)
- ½ cup peas
- 1 lemon cut into wedges
- For the marrows:
- 5 medium marrows cut length ways into two pieces about 5 cm in length (any remaining marrows are to be chopped and added in the broth with the other vegetables)
- Remaining stuffing used to fill the chicken
- For the roast potatoes:
- 6-8 medium sized potatoes cut into quarters
- 3 tbs olive oil for roasting
- Rosemary or thyme (or both) to sprinkle on top
- Fry onion and garlic in a large frying pan with olive oil for 5 minutes, or until golden brown.
- Add tomato paste and fry for 1 minute.
- Add mince meat and bacon and fry for 10 - 15 minutes until browned.
- Add in herbs and mix.
- Remove frying pan from the stove and add in the cheese and beaten eggs.
- Now get your chicken and fill the cavity with the mixture. Don't fill too tightly as the mixture expands inside the chicken from all the juices. If overfilled this can cause the chicken not to cook well.
- Truss the chicken with toothpicks to seal both ends.
- Scoop out your marrows with a spoon to create a cavity inside the marrows. Make sure not to scoop out too much so that there is only a hole from one end.
- Fill your marrows with the remaining stuffing mixture.
- In a large casserole dish or a large pot which will be able to hold the chicken and broth, fry the onion, celery and carrots with the olive oil for five minutes.
- Add in the tomato paste and fry for 1 minute.
- Add in remaining vegetables and add in boiled water until the water reaches the pot half way.
- Add in the crumbled chicken cube and gently mix.
- Gently place your chicken into the pot and bring to the boil.
- Turn the heat down to very low and gently simmer the chicken and broth for 45 minutes.
- While the broth is simmering prepare your potatoes for roasting and leave aside.
- Preheat oven to 180OC.
- Gently take out your chicken and place into a large roasting dish.
- Gently add the prepared stuffed marrows into the broth.
- Place your potatoes and herbs into another roasting dish or add into the same dish as the chicken.
- Add olive oil over the chicken and potatoes.
- Place chicken and potatoes in the oven and cook for 1 hour. Let the marrows and broth simmer for an hour also.
- When fifteen minutes left is remaining add the peas into the broth and check the chicken and potatoes to make sure that they are browning well. You may add foil onto the roasting dishes if you do not want your potatoes or chicken to brown further.
- Serve the broth with lemon wedges.
Filled marrows. Any remaining marrows are chopped and placed into the broth with the other vegetables.
Chicken in broth simmering.
Potatoes in a roasting pan ready to go into the oven.