SERVES 4

1 x 1,35 kg | 3 lb roasting chicken
15g | ½ oz butter
Freshly ground black pepper

For the stuffing
30 g | 1 oz butter
1 onion, very finely chopped
55 g | 2 oz fresh white breadcrumbs
1 small cooking apple, grated
2 teaspoons chopped mixed fresh herbs
grated zest of ½ lemon
½ egg beaten
salt and freshly ground black pepper

To Garnish
4 chipolata sausages
4 rashers of rindless streaky bacon

For the gravy
1 scant tablespoon plain flour
290 ml | ½ pint white stock made from chicken neck and giblets

To serve
Bread sauce

1. Preheat the oven to 200 deg C | 400 deg F | gas mark 6
2. Start o make the stuffing: melt the butter in a saucepan, cover with a piece of dampened greaseproof paper and a lid, then fry the onion until soft but not coloured. Allow to cool.
3. Put the breadcrumbs, apple, herbs and lemon zest together in a mixing bowl.
4. Add softened onion and enough beaten egg to bind the mixture together in a mixing bowl.
5. Stuff the chicken from the neck end, making sure the breast is well plumped. Draw the neck skin flap down to cover the stuffing. Secure with a skewer if necessary.
6. Smear a little butter all over the chicken and season with salt and pepper. Roast for about 1 ½ hours, or until the juices run clear when the thigh is pierced with a skewer.
7. Meanwhile, make each chipolata sausage into 2 cocktail-sized ones by twisting gently in the middle. Cut each bacon rasher into short lengths and roll them up.
8. After the chicken has been roasting for 1 hour, put the sausages and bacon rolls into the roasting pan, wedging the bacon rolls so that they cannot come undone.
9. Baste occasionally and check that the sausages and bacon are not sticking to the side of the pan and getting burnt.
10. When the chicken is cooked, lift it out on to a warm serving dish. Trim off the wing tips and tops of the drumsticks, surround with bacon rolls and sausages and keep warm while you make the gravy.
11. Slowly pour off all but 15 ml | 1 tablespoon of the fat from the roasting pan, taking care to keep any juices. Add the flour and stir over heat until straw coloured. Add the stock and stir until sauce boils. Simmer for 3 minutes. Check the seasoning. Strain into a warmed gravy-boat.
12. Serve the chicken with bread sauce and the gravy.

NOTES: English chicken is usually stuffed from the neck end.
The chicken looks neater if it is trussed after stuffing, but it is more difficult to get the thighs cooked without the breast drying out if it is done.

WINE: Light Red

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Excerpt from Leiths Cookery Bible

[Leith, P., and Waldegrave, C., (2003), Leiths Cookery Bible, 3rd edition, Bloomburys, UK]