This past weekend was the Real Food Festival in Maleny. Last year I volunteered both days and one day was a double shift without one minute for lunch or even a cup of tea. I decided that this year I needed to go to the festival and enjoy myself and that’s just what I did.
The first event was my chef/hero Cameron Matthews, head chef and manager at The Long Apron restaurant at Spicer’s Clovelly Estate in Montville. You might remember that my sister and I attended Cameron’s Italian cooking class last year. We’ve seen each other around and his wife Leanne is a brilliant food stylist and she did a presentation at the same photo workshop I did last year.
The truth is, this guy can cook. He’s studied, practiced, studied some more, learned from brilliant chefs and cooks and then practiced some more. He’s not full of himself and the best bit is how funny he is. I think he’d be brilliant with his own TV show. Great food and a lot of laughs – my kind of food TV.
Cameron shared the stage with Kacey Walker, owner of Walker Farm Foods where they raise dairy cows, free range chickens and free range eggs. Kacey brought a chicken that looked just like this one because I bought this just after the show. It’s the size of a small turkey but it’s not an old bird. My chicken ate grass and bugs and ran around and had a nurturing life at the Walkers and that makes me very happy. Cameron showed us how to make a chicken ballotine or a stuffed chicken leg and thigh and he served it with a mushroom sauce.
Then I followed Cameron’s instructions on how to bone a chicken thigh and leg and stuff it with sausage. I’ll admit that he did it much better than I did and his knife was WAY sharper than mine was. I think it’s time to visit the knife sharpener. Still, I got the job done. Watch the video and for this recipe, you’d pull that leg bone right out. No lollypop.
You can stuff the chicken with just about anything you like. I stuffed mine with sausage, poking the sausage meat down the hole where the leg bone used to live. I wrapped the whole thing up in cling film and used twisty ties at both ends. I gently poached the chicken roll for about 20 minutes and then heated the oven to 200C and roasted it until the skin turned golden brown.
While it was roasting I sauteed some mushrooms in some butter and then added some chicken stock and cooked that down and then added cream. When it looked thick enough for sauce I whizzed it with a stick blender.
After a few minutes of resting the chicken, I sliced it and served it with the best potatoes I’ve cooked in a long time. I’ll share those next time.
- 1 large chicken leg and thigh connected. (Chicken Maryland in Australia, Ballotine)
- ¾ cup stuffing (I used sausage)
- Chicken stock for poaching
- 25 grams butter
- 4 large button mushrooms, sliced
- a few dried mushrooms (porcini would be good)
- a few oyster or other mushrooms, chopped (if button is all you have, it will be enough)
- 1 cup chicken stock
- ¾ cup cream
- salt and pepper to taste
- Debone chicken leg and thigh. (See Video)
- Place stuffing in the leg hole and in the thigh and roll to close.
- Wrap in cling film and twist ends and fasten with a twist tie.
- Heat to a low simmer enough chicken stock to cover the number of chicken rolls you want to make. There needs to be enough stock to cover the roll.
- Place chicken roll (still inside the cling film) into the chicken stock and poach gently for 20 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 200C/400F
- Remove from the stock and remove the cling film and dry the skin with paper towel.
- Place chicken roll in a greased baking tray and place in the oven for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown.
- Rest for 10 minutes and gently cut into generous slices.
- Serve with mushroom sauce.
- Place butter in a small saucepan and place on the heat. Once butter begins to melt, add the mushrooms and cook on medium heat until the mushrooms begin to release their liquid.
- Add the stock and the cream and cook until the mixture begins to thicken.
- Remove from heat and whiz with a stick blender until smooth.
- Test for seasoning and add salt and pepper to taste.
- Serve the chicken slices with the mushroom sauce.
- Drizzle with a bit of good olive oil just before serving.
This is the first use of the chicken. Next I made chicken stock with the carcass and then chicken soup. John’s dad is coming for lunch tomorrow and he’ll love it. We’ll serve some of those brioche rolls with it too.
This sounds anazing!:)
The Real Food Festival sounds like it was an awesome experience – glad you got to enjoy it this time! I watched that video Maureen and I am flabbergasted! I see me loosing a finger or two in the process! But you did a fantastic job – that chicken looks perfect! Looking forward to that potato recipe!
Hi Maureen, never heard of Cameron Matthews before but if he can cook and make people laugh that would be a real hit TV show, best of both worlds. Beautiful stuffed chicken and chicken soup you made, John’s dad will love it!
He’s the head chef at Spicer’s Clovelly Estate’s Long Apron restaurant in Montville on the Sunshine Coast.
Love your happy chicken dish, Maureen. Bet it tasted all the better for its good life. The leg and thigh (in my opinion) are the tastiest parts of the chicken and you’ve made something you could charge a lot for in a restaurant. It looks amazing!
Thanks for the intro to a chef who is new to me.
Definitely delicious and worth to try recipe!!!
i love to frenched my chicken leg and wings too….
Great captured my friend….
Oh, after I had posted realised you have a new site – looks great!
Thanks a lot!
What a great class and properly raised chicken is always better!
Looks like you learned a lot because that stuffed chicken leg looks beautiful.
Been checking out your bucket list, a bit of a sweet tooth Maureen?
I’ve put on 10 kilos just reading it! Good luck and congrats on the new site.
LOL you’ve got it! …and thanks ????
This chicken looks delicious! It’s amazing the flavor it can have when it’s properly raised. Also, I love the site makeover too. It looks great 🙂
Beautiful Maureen!! I’m gonna get my nerve up and debone a chicken!! Thank you for the impetus!
Love the new header and layout Maureen! Mine is taking forever so I’ve been offline for ages and I’m missing being around. I spied the potatoes you put on Instagram on the plate -they sounded amazing too:)
G’day! What a great experience Maureen and one I am glad this year your were able to also enjoy!
Recipes look great and being very much under the weather, would love some chicken soup!
Cheers! Joanne
I wish I could bring soup!
Love the new look! Also love this chicken. What fun to see it done and then go home and do it! It looks great, but those potatoes look pretty good, too!
Wow what a small word.. i love visiting beautiful Maleny (and Montville too) but had no idea this festival was on! Thanks for informing me Maureen, next time it’s on I definitely want to attend. Delicious looking chicken too!
Oh my, the chicken looks perfect. And how about those potatoes….?
Well, sometimes you have to put a little extra effort into it to have something memorable — your stuffed chicken sounds delicious!
It looks and sounds very nice indeed Maureen 🙂 I’m glad you took time out to enjoy the festival this year, I’m sure it was a blast!
Hi Maureen, your chicken looks lovely. I just watched the video. That is a nifty technique.
This chicken looks great. I’ve always wanted to make chicken lollipops, thanks for sharing the video. GG
I watched Cameron do this and was determined to do it myself. It worked!
Big fan of real, good food that’s had a happy life before it gets to the kitchen, it always tastes so much better. Gotta like a good cooking show, this one sounded great.
Hi Anna, thanks for coming by. I agree with you 100%. I just love live cooking shows.
I love the new look of your blog, Maureen. I’m so glad that this year you just went along to enjoy yourself – it sounds like last year you were a slave! The chicken you bought does sound like it had a very happy life and ate well. I so prefer to buy these kinds of chickens as there’s been no animal cruelty and they’re so much better for us. If you can get five meals out of a good bird like this, then I’m sure in the end it works out being a very good investment. I’m super-impressed with how you managed to extract the leg bone and stuffing the hole with sausage is a wonderful idea and your meal looks like something from an award-winning restaurant. I want to try this! I hope you’ve enjoyed EDB and I’m sorry I wasn’t able to be there xx
You didn’t miss a thing other than our smiling faces. I was disappointed. I think we should do Pro Blogger next time. 🙂
Looks and sounds wonderful! I have never tried cooking a chicken like that before but I am going to give it a try. 🙂
Your chicken looks so good, the mushroom sauce puts it over the top!
The size of a small turkey? Our chickens are maybe a kilo but usually less! I’d gladly pay for a bird that tastes like a bird! If have to stuff 4 thighs for two people.
A really good chicken is SO worth the money, isn’t it! Not that we can always afford them, but when we can, they’re great value for money, especially if you can get five meals out of it! Love the look of this dish, M! xxx
Your chicken sounds terrific…I love the idea of stuffing it with sausage. And I can’t wait to see how you made your potatoes….they look terrific, too!
Potatoes coming soon. 🙂
I LOVED meeting you blogging mama, this weekend, it was so fantastic 😀
Lovely recipe, and I look forward to seeing you again!
Cheers
Choc Chip Uru
Oh and your new website style looks gorgeous!
I’ve never deboned a chicken – must give it a go. Your meal looks sensational.
Hi Maureen, love the new look and feel of your blog! Gorgeous! And what a great chicken dish… must get me to that food festival some day!
We were at the Sample food festival on the same weekend. Next year we will have to go to the maleny one. Love your new look blog. So sophisticated!
Thanks so much, Sherry!
Oh my comment disappeared. Was just saying great looking blog. Very sophisticated.
We were at bangalow for Sample food festival the same weekend. It was a fab day.
Glad you got to go tho the festival this year I remember you worked very hard last year. This is a delicious looking dish maureen made from a chicken that has had a happy life. I never really thought anyone would want to know how to bone a chicken out, it seems I take for granted knowing these things. The video is great Maureen simply and expertly demonstrated
I don’t think I’ll ever buy a chicken cut apart again. I’ll spend the money on a good bird and use every bit of it.
I am soooo tempted! You know, I tried doing this (without the benefit of a video instructing me) and the result was a very unhappy Sally and a very badly butchered chicken. Not a nice combination, I can tell you that much
you did it like a pro, congratulations!
I watched it being done less than 5 feet from where I was sitting. I have no excuse.
mhmm stuffed chicken. I haven’t eaten anything like this in years. This dish would make my day maureen. =)
That’s really one amazing piece of chicken, i love all the elements here.
And the deboning, I love doing them and we have a nearly similar recipe where chicken is also deboned and stuffed.
I hope you post your recipe, Raymund!
Great new look Maureen! I’ve always seen people that can debone a chicken, then make a dish like this as having lots and lots of patience! This is an amazing dish!
Hi, Maureen, I love the new look of your site! And this chicken dish really is amazing, especially with the sausage. But, I can’t see me de-boning a chicken, I almost lost a finger on my new mandolin.
You can’t beat a good stuffed chicken leg. They are a lot of work but well worth it.
Great new theme to the blog, Maureen.
Thanks, David!
Porcini mushrooms sauce… sounds yummy! Looks like a great chicken!
I so loved my meal at The Long Apron! And this is a marvellous looking dish and I love a good two parter meal! 😀