The one pitfall of cooking whole chickens is that the chicken breast dries out many times because they don't need to be cooked as long as the rest of it. That problem was solved with this recipe, and mmmmm, I wish you were here so I could give you a sample to taste.
Sweet and Sour Veggie Stuffed Chicken
Ingredients1 whole chicken
1/4 cup mayonnaise, ideally homemade
Sugar, sucanat, or other healthy sweetener to taste
Salt to taste
Lemon juice to taste
Mustard to taste
Garlic to taste (optional)
Black pepper to taste
A bunch of spinach like greens, ideally foraged. I used nettles, but spinach, swiss chard, beet greens, etc would work.
A bunch of wood sorrel leaves. These impart a lemony taste, so if you leave these out, add lemon juice to the rest of the greens.
A bunch of wild fennel fronds. If you don't have foraged wild fennel, you can use fennel fronds from purchased bulbs, or fresh dill.
1 lemon
1 bulb fennel. You can use any other vegetable in its place, from carrots to zucchini to broccoli, etc.
1 onion.
Instructions
1. In a cup, mix mayo with sugar, salt, lemon and mustard to taste. Sweet and sour and a little mustardy is exactly how you want it. Add garlic if you like it that way.
2. Mix the greens, fennel fronds, and wood sorrel or lemon. Chop up into smaller pieces. Salt lightly.
3. Clean your chicken if desired. Place in a large baking dish, breast side up, and fill the inner cavity with all the greens. They'll shrink tremendously so pack it tightly.
4. Rub the entire skin with your mayo mixture. This'll make the skin nice and crispy and delicious and keep the chicken moist.
5. Chop up vegetables, onions, and lemons and place in the baking dish around the chicken. Sprinkle the entire thing with salt and pepper.
6. Bake until the veggies are all soft and the mayo on the chicken is starting to brown. (No, in the above picture, that's no burnt, just browned nicely.)
7. Enjoy!
Linking up to Fight Back Friday and Pennywise Platter and Food on Friday.