A matzo-stuffed chicken for any time comfort food
Why is it that we only stuff poultry one day a year?
Let's face it, stuffing takes an already delicious dish — roasted poultry — and makes it even more so by adding flavorful, fat-soaked carbs to the mix. Yet outside of Thanksgiving, few of us ever think to stuff and roast a bird. Admittedly, most of us don't have the time to prepare a stuffed turkey on a weeknight. But why not try a chicken?
The beauty of a roasted chicken is that aside from about 15 minutes prep, nearly all of the time is hands off. And we can keep the roasting time itself pretty minimal by spatchcocking the chicken (cutting out the backbone and roasting the bird flat) before stuffing and roasting it.
Since Passover is coming up, I decided to play around with a matzo-based herb stuffing. But if you'd rather stick with a more traditional stuffing base, the same technique works just as well.
• J.M. Hirsch is the food editor for The Associated Press. He blogs at LunchBoxBlues.com. Follow him on Twitter @JM—Hirsch or email him at jhirsch@ap.org