For 4-6 people
1 Whole Chicken,
1/2 loaf of white bread,
2kg potatoes,
2 eggs,
2 Garlic cloves,
Salt,
Paprika,
Pepper,
Parsley,
Milk,
Water (splashes),
It’s 2kg of potatoes, because they are easily the most popular part of this dish. No matter how many potatoes I’ve added over the years, they are always gone at the end fo the meal.
Prepare stuffing:
Pre-heat oven to 150C. Cut half loaf of white bread into cubes. Place bread cubes onto oven trey and ‘toast’ for 20 minutes. Cubes should be mostly dry. Not a problem if they’re still a little soft in places.
Pour toasted bread cubes into bowl. Add eggs, garlic, parsley, some salt, a dash of milk. Mix together so stuffing becomes a firm dough. Only add more milk if it’s still too dry. It’s important stuffing doesn’t become runny/slimy. If it does, add flour to soak up moisture.
Chicken:
Heat oven to 190C.
Separate and lift the skin between the leg and breast, creating a kind of pocket. Then push the stuffing in that pocket, distributing the stuffing evenly across the two chickens. Season the chickens all round with salt, pepper and paprika.
Place chickens breast-down onto the baking trey, sprinkle them with a little with water and put into oven. For 1h 20 min. Rotate chickens every 20 mins. Sprinkle water over chicken with every rotation.
While the chicken is in the oven, cut potatoes into thin slices. You can peel them or leave the skin on. Once sliced up, season potatoes with salt and pepper.
When taking the chickens out for the second rotation, put the potato slices layer by layer onto the trays. Lift up the chickens a little to get the slices underneath them.
Finish cooking the chicken and potatoes in the oven and serve the entire baking tray on the table.
