Boneless stuffed chicken

There are many recipes for chicken dishes: some fry the breast, thighs separately, or roast it whole. Many housewives are so accustomed to their recipes that they pay no attention to other ways of serving chicken at all. Today you will learn a way to prepare chicken for a festive dinner using a special recipe. The main feature of the dish is that the boneless stuffed chicken is filled with buckwheat and two types of cabbage. Imagine your guests' surprise when they don't hear the crunch of bones at the moment of serving the dish. Shall we begin?

Calories: 181 kcal per 100 grams of the dish.

Cooking time: 80 minutes.

Yield: 4 servings.

Cuisine: Russian.

Ingredients

• 1 whole chicken;
• 1 medium onion;
• 100 g fresh cabbage;
• 100 g sauerkraut;
• 100 g buckwheat;
• 1 orange;
• 30 ml vegetable oil;
• 20 g butter;
• ½ tsp rosemary;
• 20 g honey;
• 10 ml soy sauce;
• salt and pepper.

Preparation

1. Let's start cooking with the filling. Pour a glass of boiling water over the buckwheat and leave it covered to swell. We don’t need to cook the grain until done. The peculiarity of this filling is that during baking, half-cooked buckwheat will absorb the juice and aroma of the other filling components.

2. Shred the fresh cabbage into strips and slice the onion into half rings. In a hot pan, melt the butter, add both types of cabbage and onion, and add a little rosemary. Cook the cabbage over low heat until soft for about 5 minutes. Even if it doesn't get fully cooked, that's fine. Leave it covered in a warm place, as we need it hot for the filling.

3. Squeeze the juice from the whole orange and add it to the cabbage. Do not add the orange itself with the skin to the filling, as it will impart bitterness. You can place the peel on the baking tray next to the chicken to give a bright aroma to the bird.

4. Prepare the chicken for further work. The difficulty of this dish is that we need to remove the bone structure from the bird, leaving the bones of the wings and thighs. Start separating the meat from the bone from the back of the chicken. Be sure to use only a very sharp knife. Carefully cut the meat first from the keel bone and continue further. In the area of the breast, you can help yourself with your hands. Cut off the shoulder joints, then the thigh ones. Move to the back area and then, turning the chicken inside out, separate the meat from the wishbone. Cut off the neck and remove the esophagus. The main difficulty of such butchering is not to tear the chicken skin. Even if you awkwardly butcher the chicken from the inside, it’s not a big deal. When butchering the bird, do not cut off the tail, as it will be useful for securing the skin.

5. Now we will need very thin skewers or toothpicks. First, secure the hole in the neck area: make a skin fold and pierce it with a skewer. Instead of skewers, you can simply sew the skin with regular threads.

6. Combine the hot cabbage with the buckwheat, add pepper and salt the filling to taste. Fill the inside of the chicken with this filling. Stuff it tightly enough so that the bird retains its original shape. Then make another skin fold and secure it with a toothpick or threads.

7. Now take a string and tie the wings at the breast area. With a second string, tie the legs together, and then wrap it around the tail and tie the ends of the string at the belly.

8. Place the chicken carcass on a baking tray and drizzle it with oil. Sprinkle with salt on top and gently rub it, distributing it over the entire chicken. To prevent the top from burning, cover the bird with a sheet of foil for the first 25 minutes of baking. Place it in the oven at 180 degrees with the 'top-bottom' mode.

9. After 25-30 minutes, take the chicken out and remove the foil, changing the oven mode to 'top'. In a bowl, mix honey and soy sauce. Brush this sauce over the chicken on all sides and place it back in the oven for 5-7 minutes. Then remove it, brush it with sauce again, and bake for another 5 minutes.

10. The boneless stuffed chicken is ready! Before serving, cut the strings and remove the skewers, as the baked chicken holds its shape well. Enjoy your meal!