Stuffed Chicken Thighs

Stuffing meat goes back into ancient history. It has developed into one of those food issues which causes arguments whenever it is brought up! Never is this more evident than at Christmas. We argue about whether the bird should be stuffed (in my eyes, no) whether the stuffing should contain meat (in my eyes, yes) whether it should be served in balls or slices (slices for me) and whether it is better hot or cold (I love stuffing as a cold cut).
The recipe below is for a stuffed chicken leg. This is a bit of a misnomer as the whole leg is not stuffed, just the thigh, whilst it is roasted as a whole leg. I have, on a couple of occasions, stuffed a whole chicken leg and let me assure you that life is way to short to take the bone out of a chicken drumstick!
I decided to use Black Pudding because I love it. Many people find eating a blood sausage problematic but it is efficient and a good use of a product that may well otherwise have been wasted. However, if you are trying to get blood to make your own then you would have better luck buying dynamite. It is unlikely that an abattoir will supply you with any as fresh blood has a very high infection risk. However, you can get powdered blood which is used in most commercial Black Pudding.
The removal of the bone from a chicken thigh (whether attached to the drumstick or not) is a reasonably easy thing to do, just be aware that the first time you do it it will take a while though you will get much quicker at it over time. It is a very worthwhile skill to learn as chicken thigh has a lot more flavour than breast and is much cheaper.
I served this with a puree of carrot and potato, spinach and the roasting juices reduced with a little stock.

Chicken Legs stuffed with Black Pudding

2 Chicken legs (sometimes called "oyster" cut)
10gms Black Pudding crumbled or finely chopped
1 egg beaten
1 small handful breadcrumbs
Salt and pepper

Mix the beaten egg with the black pudding and bread to form a firm paste. pick off a little piece of this and fry it  and taste it to check for seasoning (this will depend entirely on the black pudding). Season if needed.

The stuffing, not too sloppy!

Bone out the chicken thighs, separating them at the joint to leave the drumstick attached but still with its bone in.

Thigh bone removed

Roll a small finger of the stuffing and place in the gap left by the thigh bone.

Stuffed, ready for closing.

Wrap the flesh around the stuffing and secure with three or four cocktail sticks. (Ideally these should have been soaked for an hour or two before starting, but I nearly always forget).

Cocktail sticks used for sealing the roast

Roast the legs in a oven at about 180 degrees for 20 or more minutes until cooked through. The skin should be beautifully crisp and golden.
Pop the legs aside to rest for a short while whilst reducing some good chicken stock with the meat juices in the roasting tin. Serve with some kind of mash (celeriac might be nice) and some squeaky greens (spinach, kale, cabbage, chard, etc). Remove the cocktail sticks, carve the thigh and serve.

Served, with a creepy hand shadow on the plate!

This serves two people with a seriously hearty meal.

Roast alternative.

When one cooks for many people the idea of a "Sunday Roast" is a simple affair. One buys a flipping huge lump of Beef, Pork or Lamb and applies heat. A short while later everyone at the table starts oohing and aghing as the said lump of flesh is served. When there are only two of you this becomes extremely difficult. Roasting meat is a strange thing - in order to be really delicious a joint of meat has to be be a considerable size, little pieces of meat simply dry up and turn to leather. This leaves the gourmet couple with a dilemma - miss out on the glory that is a full roast dinner or find yourself eating cold cuts for a week after the roast.
Don't get me wrong, I'm a fan of the cold cut and, in the interests of food efficiency, if we cook it we should eat it; but eating Roast Lamb followed by Shepherds pie, followed by lamb curry followed by Hot Pot can all get a tad samey.
The following recipe is a antidote to this sad situation and provides a remarkably inexpensive roast dinner for two.

Stuffed Chicken Legs
Two (free range, high animal welfare) chicken legs.
Two sausages (I've used Toulouse, but any high quality ones will do)
Two rashers of free range,dry cure, streaky bacon (smoked if you like)

Take all of the bones out of the legs from the inside of the leg. This will take a short time as it does take practice but its worth the extra few minutes, just keep going with little cuts till the bones come away. Make sure you keep the skin on. Level out any of the flesh. Take the sausage meat out of the skins and put about one third of each sausage on the drumstick end and the rest on the thigh end and wrap up the legs again. Secure the thigh end by wrapping bacon around it and, if necessary secure the drummer with a cocktail stick. Tuck the skin in if there is any overlapping. Roast in a medium hot oven for about 45 minutes. Allow to rest for about 10 minutes, slice into about 5 pieces and serve with all your usual trimmings.