Prep time: 5 mins + 15 mins + 15 mins (or faster depending on your butchering skills)
Cook time: 15 mins + 45-55 mins
Cook's note: This recipe builds on a foundation originally made famous by Thomas Keller in Bouchon, "My Favorite Simple Roast Chicken". The basics remain the same -- use a small bird of excellent quality, let it get to temperature, remove the wishbone, dry it out, season the inside and outside with a thin layer of salt and pepper, tie with twine to keep the meat juicy, and then cook in a pan at high heat. The differences: we remove the bones (except in the wings) to add a cornbread stuffing, and instead of a traditional truss we sew the back from tail to neck to keep the bird mostly intact for preserving juices during roasting.
INGREDIENTS
1 6.5 oz box Jiffy corn muffin mix
1 egg
1/3 cup milk
Butter
2 green onions (leafy green parts only)
1/3 green bell pepper, seeds removed
1 celery stalk (green part only)
3 sprigs parsley leaves
3 sprigs thyme leaves (optional)
1/3 cup chicken broth (should use less)
1 3-lb whole chicken, completely thawed (but below room temperature)
Salt and pepper
SPECIAL TOOLS
Trussing needle (I found this one at my local hardware store of all places)
Butchers' twine
INSTRUCTIONS
Make the cornbread: Preheat oven to 400F. Use butter to grease a small pan. In a medium bowl, blend muffin mix, egg, and milk until combined – you can stir with a fork, batter will be slightly lumpy. Pour batter into pan and bake for 15-20 minutes, or until golden brown. Clean the medium bowl. Meanwhile, finely chop all vegetables and mix together in a small bowl.
Once cornbread is fully cooked, remove from oven – rub the top of the bread with butter, if desired (and you should, trust me). Let cornbread cool to where you can touch with your fingers. Remove from pan and put into the medium bowl. Use your hands to break the cornbread into fine crumbs and let it continue to cool until it reaches room temperature.
While the cornbread cools, debone the chicken: (This Louisiana butcher has the best how-to on this deboning method -- and the best accent in a cooking video since Paul Prudhomme.) Adjust oven temp to 450F. Place the bird back side down and use a sharp boning knife to remove the wishbone – it will be at the neck end of the bird between the breasts (here’s Chef Keller showing you how at 0:54). Next, flip the bird over and make a slice down the back from the neck to the tail. Use your knife to pull back the skin from the carcass toward the tail carefully, making sure to cut away as little meat as possible. Find where the thigh bone connects to the back and slice through the joint. Continue with the knife working your way back up the bird until you can cleanly slice through the wing joint in a similar way. Repeat on the opposite side to slice through the thigh and wing joints. Finally, cut away the breasts from the carcass until the carcass is completely removed from the bird. Then, for each thigh bone, use your knife to slice around the joint to free it and then scrape the meat down until you can easily cut through where the thigh connects to the drumstick. Remove any excess cartilage, and then repeat the same motion to remove the leg bone. (At the end, you can almost pull away the drumstick.) Remove the thigh and leg bones from the opposite side. Once the chicken is deboned, sprinkle the inside with a tiny layer of salt and pepper (about 1/2 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp pepper).
Finish the dressing and stuff: Combine the green vegetable mixture into the cornbread crumbs using your fingers until evenly mixed – the cornbread will continue to break down into smaller pieces. Add chicken broth a little at a time (you should not use all of it) just until the mixture sticks together so you can knead it together in your hands – about the consistency of dough. Roll an amount about the size of a large ping pong ball and stuff it into the leg; repeat for the other leg. Roll the rest into a football shape and place in the middle of the bird.
Sew up the bird: (French legend Alain Passard demonstrates this technique in his Chicken-Duck demo at 1:00 here.) Thread a trussing needle with some butcher’s twine about 3 lengths of the chicken. Holding the skin together with one hand and starting at the tail end, push the needle through the inside of the skin to the outside – push toward the side which is holding the needle. Pull across the seam to the other side and push the needle through the outside of the skin to the inside. Putting the needle down, tie off the knot at end of the tail. Pick the needle back up and cross over the seam again about 3/4-inch above the previous thread and push the needle through the inside of the skin to the outside. Cross the seam again and continue, going through the outside skin of your needle hand and pushing through to the outside skin of your seam-holding hand, keeping a uniform distance between each threading. When you reach the end of the bird, make your last incision outside-in through the needle side but do not push through the opposite side – instead, push toward the center gap then push outside-in through the opposite side. Cut the string off the needle using scissors and tie off the knot.
Cook: Sprinkle salt and pepper over the skin of the threaded bird (don’t forget to turn it and get both sides!), and place seam-side up in a pan large enough to hold it. Cook at 450F for 45-55 minutes, rotating as needed to make sure it cooks evenly (I turn it 120 degrees every 15 minutes because my oven can't be trusted) until the internal temp of the chicken is 155F – be sure to check an area where you are getting actual meat temperature and not stuffing. As soon as you pull the pan, tilt it and use a spoon to baste the skin in the juices that have released. Let the basted chicken rest away from heat for 10-15 minutes – the internal temperature will continue rising to 165F.
Serve: Use a sharp carving knife to cut across the bird width-wise, slicing 3/4-inch cross sections and removing the twine. I like to serve with something green and rich, like haricots verts with shallots cooked in butter.
