Kozhi Nirachathu / Stuffed Chicken

Thanksgiving, X’mas, New Year etc etc , almost all the special occasion will have baked bird on the table. I was getting fed up with baking the bird and was running out of ideas on how to jazz it up. Atleast Thanksgiving has the stuffing to make a difference. I was planning for X’Mas menu and then suddenly thought about an article in Vanitha, it’s regarding a lady who caters for weddings and her speciality is Adu nirachathu (Stuffed goat). This is done by stuffing the goat with chicken which has been stuffed with masala and eggs. Then frying the whole marinated goat.

So thought of taking stuffed chicken for the menu. Original recipe calls for frying the bird and then stuff it, I took the frying part out just to avoid the grease. The menu already had enough grease. So here it goes and every one liked it .

Ingredients :-

For Marinating :

Whole Chicken – 1 small

Vinegar – 1 Tbsp
Ginger- 1 medium piece
Garlic – 4-5 cloves

Red Chilly powder – 3 to 4 tsp

Turmeric powder – 2tsp

Salt – to taste
Oil- 3 Tbsp

For Stuffing :

Egg – 1 or 2 depending on the size of your chicken

Big Onion sliced – ½

Ginger-Garlic paste – 1 tsp

Red chilly powder – 1/4 tsp

Turmeric powder – 1/4 tsp

Coriander powder – 1 tsp

Garam masala powder – 1/2 tsp

Coriander leaves chopped – 1/2 cup

Salt – to taste

Oil – as needed

Method :-

Marination:

Clean the chicken thoroughly. Make tiny slits on the chicken on both sides, for the masala to penetrate well. Grind the ginger, garlic and vinegar to make a paste. Prepare a marinade using red chilly powder,turmeric powder,ginger garlic paste,Oil and salt adding necessary water to make a smooth paste.Apply the paste all over the chicken on both sides . Cover it well and marinate it for atleast 1 hr.

Stuffing :

Boil the eggs till it is fully cooked. When it is cold peel off the shell and reserve
Heat oil in a pan and saute onion and ginger-garlic paste until onion turns translucent .Add the chilly powder, turmeric powder, coriander powder, garam masala powder and fry it in medium heat until everything is blended together. Add salt and the rest of the ingredients for stuffing and mix together. Finally add the boiled egg (whole or sliced half),and fry for few more minutes. Switch off the heat and keep this aside.

Preheat the oven to 400 F.

Bake the marinated chicken breast side down in a pan sprayed with pam or drizzled with some oil. Bake it for 30 mns, take the pan out, turn the chicken. Now the breast side is up, fill it with the stuffing .Just be careful not to overstuff the chicken, you can either use kitchen twine to tie the legs or just leave it. Baste the chicken with the juices in the pan and bake it again for 30-40 mns .