Do you have something to celebrate? A new bride in the family? A new mother?
The fact that it is Saturday?
Stuffed chicken is a Palestinian celebratory meal, served particularly to
new mothers. Traditionally, a new mother would spend a month at home and in
bed, caring for her newborn, while her mother-in-law would take over all
household chores, including cooking and preparing delicacies for the new
mother. Pregnancy, labor, delivery, the early days of breastfeeding - new
mothers' bodies have given so much that they should in turn be given the most
nourishing foods possible. This tender roasted chicken is stuffed with buttery
pine nuts, spiced rice and ground meat. Served with a bowl of tart plain
yogurt, a chopped salad and some Arabic bread, this makes for a meal designed
to heal and build up a mother's body.
The quality of the chicken matters. When my mother comes to America, she
laughs at the plump chickens in the grocery store.
Is this a chicken or a
turkey? What did they do to these breasts? I have never seen a chicken like
this. She mockingly staggers as she picks one up.
I have come to see her point. The chickens I grew up eating were smaller,
and also tasted well, more like chicken. More flavorful than the
chicken-flavored-cardboard that I had been cooking since I had moved to the
States.
I back away from the boob-job chickens.
I pick up an organic, free-range chicken. When on sale, I really enjoy
kosher organic chickens. They are so tender that they melt in your mouth and my
children adore them. The higher price tag gives me pause until I realize that
if I make enough bone broth from the chicken bones, I will actually recoup the
cost of the chicken entirely. And because they are pastured birds, they absorb
the macro nutrients of the foods they eat, and pass those on to me. These birds
fit into our moral framework, too, which I was grateful for tonight when my
daughter asked me what the difference was between the chicken that we eat and
the chickens that she has seen at farms. When I gently explained that they are
one and the same, I was glad to be able to explain that this bird had had a
long happy life and just one bad day.
Djaj
Mahshi
1 whole chicken, pastured preferred
Rice and Meat Stuffing:
(Enough for extra to cook on the
stove top or to stuff two chickens)
1 onion, diced
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup rice, soaked overnight, rinsed
and drained
1 teaspoon butter
1 3/4 cups chicken stock or water
1/2 lb ground lamb or beef
Salt and pepper
All spice
Cinnamon
Nutmeg
1/2 cup pine nuts
Chicken Rub:
1 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons yogurt
2 tablespoons pomegranate molasses*
1 tsp Middle Eastern chicken
seasoning, or all spice
2 tablespoons butter
salt and pepper
1. Saute the diced onion in olive
oil until translucent. Add rice and saute for a couple of minutes. Then add
chicken broth or water, 1 1/2 tsp salt and pepper, 1 tsp all spice, and a
little freshly grated nutmeg. Bring to a boil and then simmer until becoming
tender, but not mushy, about 15 minutes.
2. Brown the meat, breaking up into
small pieces with your spatula. Season with salt, pepper, 1/2 tsp all spice,
and little cinnamon.
3. Saute the pine nuts in a
tablespoon of butter, over low heat, stirring carefully and watching. They burn
very easily.
4. In a bowl, combine the rice,
meat, pine nuts and onions. Check seasonings.
5. Wash the chicken and pat dry
inside and out and set it into a shallow roasting pan.
6. Divide the rice into two separate
bowls, to prevent contamination. Reserve one bowl to serve with the chicken.
Spoon stuffing from the other bowl into the cavity of the chicken, fitting as
much as you can. Using toothpicks, secure the opening to the cavity as best as
you can. If you prefer, you can sew the cavity closed.
7. In a small bowl, combine lemon
juice, yogurt and pomegranate molasses. Rub into the chicken breast. Salt and
pepper the chicken liberally. Place some pats of butter under the breast skin,
and rub a little more onto the chicken skin.
8. For a tender bird, slow roast the
chicken using this method. Preheat oven to 300 F and roast the chicken. Roast
until the chicken reaches 160 F, then turn the oven up to 375 F, baste the
chicken with its juices and roast until the chicken's internal temperature
reaches 180 F. This should take a total of two and a half to three hours,
depending on the size of the chicken.
9. Cover with foil and let the
chicken rest for five to ten minutes, for its juices to redistribute.
10. To make the most flavorful rice,
pour some of the chicken drippings from the roast pan into the reserved rice
stuffing and stir it in. Then try not to eat it all on the spot.
*You can purchase pomegranate molasses at Middle Eastern
grocers, large grocery stores, or you can make it yourself. See recipe.