Chicken Ballotine

In a “celebration” of past Daring Baker and Daring Cook challenges, Lisa challenged all of us to search through the Daring Kitchen archives and pick any one we’d like! The REAL challenge was picking which delicious recipe(s) to try!

This is my first challenge with the Daring Bakers. I actually joined 2 months ago, but I this is the first challenge I had all the ingredients for. I chose a recipe from the Daring Cooks-Chicken Ballotine.

Now, I do intend to make all the past recipes (both Bakers and Cooks) that I have all the ingredients for, but I was sooo intrigued by this. I watched the video and braced myself. I have to say that it was fantastic, and this method of cooking chicken is going to be a common feature in my kitchen from now on.

The chicken turns out tender and moist. I used a date filling and I think it was the perfect combination. We didn't even get out plates for this. Hubby and I just ate right from the carving sheet.

The next day, I baked potatoes in the chicken grease and served it with the left over chicken (only leftover because I forcibly took it away from Hubby; I knew I wanted to try it with the potatoes)

I didn't have kitchen string so I used wooden skewers.
Fantastic recipe! I apologise in advance for the crappy pictures

Ingredients
1.6 kg chicken, washed
1 medium red onion, chopped
1 1/2 tablespoons of salt
7 cloves of garlic, chopped
4 green chilies, chopped (I didn't deseed)
12 pitted dates, chopped
1 stick of butter, softened
1 tablespoons of ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon of Cajun spice mix (don't ask why, just do it!)

Method
Preheat oven to 350
1. Debone the chicken, using this video as guide. I left the drumstick and wing bone in.
2. In a bowl, mix butter, dates, onions, garlic, ginger, 1/2 tablespoon of salt and Cajun spice.
3. Spread the mix on the inside of the chicken.
4. Close the chicken and skewer through.
5. Rub the remaining salt on the skin of the chicken.
6. Bake for 40 minutes, or till done.

If I can, you can,

Deema