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Chicken Ballotine

Chicken Ballotine

Chicken Ballotine filled with cold meats and pistachios... the Italian way!

Course Main
Cuisine French, Italian
Prep Time 1 hour
Cook Time 1 hour 15 minutes
Total Time 2 hours 15 minutes
Author Manuela Zangara

Ingredients

Chicken and Stuffing

  • 1 whole chicken 1.5 kg to 1.8 kg – 3.3 lbs. to 4 lbs.
  • 150 gms – 5.3 oz. mince beef or veal
  • 150 gms – 5.3 oz. Italian pork sausage casing removed
  • 60 gms – 2 oz. prosciutto sliced
  • 60 gms – 2 oz. mortadella sliced
  • 50 gms – 1.75 oz. Parmigiano Reggiano finely grated
  • 1 egg
  • 25 ml – 0.9 oz. Marsala wine or Brandy
  • 35 gms – 1.25 oz. pistachios
  • 15 gms – 0.5 oz. sandwich bread
  • 1 pinch nutmeg
  • Sale and Pepper to taste

Roasting

  • 2 garlic cloves
  • 2 rosemary sprigs
  • 4 sage leaves
  • 2 bay leaves
  • ½ tbsp garlic powder
  • ½ tbsp paprika
  • 100 ml – 3.5 oz. white wine
  • 1 chicken stock cube
  • 40 ml – 1.4 oz. water
  • 2 red apples cored and sliced in 6 or 8 pieces
  • Extra virgin olive oil to brush
  • Ground pepper and salt to taste

Instructions

Chicken and Stuffing

  1. Soak the bread with Marsala and then mix it with all the other ingredients apart from the prosciutto and mortadella slices.
  2. Keep the stuffing in the fridge while deboning the chicken.
  3. Debone the chicken following the instructions in this video.
  4. And these photos:
  5. Gently flatten the chicken out with a meat mallet.
  6. Season with salt and pepper.
  7. Put the prosciutto slices on the open chicken. Spread the stuffing (make sure to push some inside the thighs!). Put the mortadella slices on the top.
  8. Close the chicken and tie it up with butcher’s twine (see the above video for instructions).

Roasting

  1. Put the ballotine in an oven tray and rub it with the ground pepper, paprika and garlic powder.
  2. Drizzle with the extra virgin olive oil.
  3. Put the garlic cloves, bay leaves, rosemary and sage in the tray.
  4. Roast in a preheated oven at 230°C – 445°F for the first 15 minutes, then add in the white wine, water and crumbled stock cube.
  5. Decrease the temperature to 200°C – 390°F and roast for 1 hour or until it reaches an internal temperature of 165°F – 74°C (or when the juices run clear when you pierce the chicken).
  6. Add the sliced apples 15 to 20 minutes before the chicken is ready.
  7. Let the ballotine rest for approximately 20 minutes covered loosely in foil before slicing and serving it with the apples and sauce.