Are you feeling a little bored and tired of eating the same recipes over and over again this winter? Why not try something with a little heat (not too much) and flavour! Get out of your dull, boring winter routine and spice things up in the kitchen with this Mediterranean chicken dish.

Stuffed roast chicken with chorizo

Ingredients:

Stuffing

    -Olive oil, for frying
    -150¿200g chorizo, skinned and cubed
    -1 onion, peeled and finely chopped
    -2 garlic cloves, peeled and finely sliced
    -Bunch of thyme sprigs
    -2 x 400g tins cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
    -200g semi-dried/sunblush tomatoes in oil
    -Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Chicken

    -1 large free-range chicken, about 2kg
    -1 lemon
    -Olive oil, for drizzling
    -1 heaped tsp paprika (sweet or smoked, as preferred)
    -400ml white wine

Method:

You will first need to pre-heat your oven to 180°C.

Put a frying pan with 1-2 table spoons of olive oil on medium heat; you do not want to add a lot of olive oil as the fat from the chorizo will melt down into the pan.

Once the oil is warm, add skinned and cubed chorizo. The chorizo adds richness to the stuffing, as it is incredibly meaty, garlicky and spicy.

Finely chop your onions and add them to the pan with the already simmering chorizo. Do not be alarmed when the onions change colour; the oils from the chorizo do that, and at the same time add flavour to the onions.

Chop up the garlic and add it to the pan. Next, add the fresh thyme.  

Drain the canned cannellini beans and add them to the pan.  Cannellini beans are white Italian kidney beans; you can use either canned or dried beans. If dried, soak them in water overnight.  

Season the ingredients with a good pinch of salt and pepper.  The beans are quite dense and may have slightly taken away of the harsh flavours from the mixture.   

Add semi- sundried tomatoes. This ingredient gives the stuffing a hint of sweetness and enhances the flavours.
Take the stuffing off the heat.  

Make sure the chicken is properly cleaned and turn it ¿butt side up¿.

Season the inside of the chicken with salt and pepper.

Put the stuffing inside the chicken. Fill any open spaces as this will help the bird to cook evenly.

Once the chicken is stuffed, use the lemon to close the chicken. Get hold of the pope¿s nose (tail of the chicken) and pull it over the lemon.
Sprinkle your chicken with olive oil, rub it in and season it with salt and pepper.

Now take paprika, sprinkle it onto the chicken and rub it in with your hands, making sure the whole chicken is covered with red spicy goodness. It will already look delicious!!

Put 400ml of white wine into a roasting tray along with 400ml of water. The water helps the chicken to steam and makes sure it stays nice and juicy.

Place the chicken into the baking tray with some more thyme sprigs - don¿t be stingy - and cover it with foil (shiny side down). The foil needs to be folded tightly around the roasting tray to make sure that it does not let any of that precious stream escape.

Place the chicken into the oven (already pre heated to 180) and roast for 1 hour with the foil on.

Then take it out, remove the foil and place the chicken back into the oven for 30 minutes to crisp up its paprika skin. Then take the chicken out and let it rest on a board.

Take the cooked lemon, cut it open and squeeze its contents into the baking tray and whisk it in. The water, wine and delicious juices from the chicken have turned into gravy.

Sieve the gravy into a gravy boat.

Before you cut up the chicken, take out the stuffing and place it into a serving dish. Take some of the gravy and drizzle it over the stuffing.
Cut up the chicken nicely and serve this incredibly comforting and delicious healthy meal and enjoy.

This is one of the easiest, simplest and most comforting meals.  Do you have any go-to-for-comfort recipes that you would like to share? If yes, send them to promotion@bobshop.co.za and we might publish them here!