Chicken stuffed with spiced couscous grapes.

Use this to stuff your festive turkey too.

4

Servings

Stuffing

Red onion
1 (large), diced
Garlic
2 cloves, finely chopped
Olive oil
Ground cinnamon + All spice dried mint
½ tsp (2.5ml) each
Ground cumin + Coriander
1 tsp (5ml) each
Dried whole-wheat couscous
½ cup (125ml)
Currants
¼ cup (60ml)
Grapes
1 cup (250ml)

For the Chicken

Free-range chicken
1 large (1.2kg)
Red onion
1, cut into thick wedges
Olive oil
Salt and milled pepper
Verjuice
1 cup (250ml) OR ½ grape juice + ½ chicken stock
Fresh Thyme
Handful
Currants
¼ cup (60ml)
Grapes
1 cup (250ml)

Chicken couscous

Grapes

Method

Preheat oven to 200°C.
Sauté onion and garlic in oil until soft. Cool.
Mix all remaining stuffing ingredients with onions.
Stuff chickens neck and body cavity with stuffing and secure the loose neck skin with a toothpick.
Place onion wedges in a roasting tray and place the chicken on top.
Drizzle with oil and season all over. Scatter with thyme.
Pour verjuice around chicken.
Cover with foil and roast for 1 hour. Remove foil
Place remaining grapes around chicken and roast for 30 minutes more or until golden and cooked through.
Serve chicken with pan juices and grapes.

Cook’s tip:

Verjuice is slightly fermented grape juice and lends a lovely acidity to the sauce.
Don’t be concerned about using uncooked couscous in the stuffing, these is enough liquid as the chicken cooks to steam it.