A traditional roast chicken dinner for Sundays or feast days and family gatherings, this whole roast chicken is stuffed with a delicious homemade liver stuffing. The glazed crispy chicken skin tastes as delicious as the juicy flesh, and carves out just perfectly!
Almost every country in the world has their own version of a Sunday roast. This is the stuffed chicken recipe that mom makes for Sunday dinners, birthdays, parties, and Christmas; East Indian style.
What Ingredients Do You Need To Roast Chicken?
In order to make a stuffed Roast Chicken, first, you need the Chicken Liver Stuffing. Other than this you require a whole chicken, ghee, water, sugar, dried red chilies, cloves, cinnamon sticks, and cardamom pods, and salt. You also need a few toothpicks to stitch up the chicken. You can roast the chicken without the stuffing too. In that case, no toothpicks needed.
How To Make Roast Chicken?
You start by getting the chicken ready. Make sure you have the Chicken Liver Stuffing at hand. Wash and clean the chicken and then stuff the cavity with some delicious Liver pudding. Stitch the opening closed with a few toothpicks.
Sometimes we close the chicken’s cavity with needles and thread too. But toothpicks are just easier and less messy. No need to wash needles, etc.
Yes, I know you’re wondering why you can see chicken feet in the picture. Let me just tell you that chicken feet are a much part of the chicken here in India. Think chicken feet soup, fried chicken feet starters, and more. 😉
Anyways, once this is done, you can tie the legs of the chicken together if you’re roasting it in the oven. Since we’re doing it in the kadai (Indian word for wok) this time, we don’t tie the chicken legs.
Set the chicken aside and make the sugar mel (syrup). Caramelize the sugar until you get a nice burnt aroma and look.
Place the whole stuffed chicken into the vessel and allow it to cook and brown on one side. After a few minutes, turn the chicken over and brown the other side.
Sometimes it turns easily. Sometimes the skin gets stuck and comes off like this poor dead bird. Don’t worry about it. The family and friends will still love supping on the juicy roast chicken. See, this is evidence that food doesn’t have to look perfect to taste perfect!
Once you’ve turned the chicken, add in the ghee (Indian clarified butter) or oil if you don’t have any ghee and water. To that, add the spices, namely dried Kashmiri chilies, cloves, cinnamon sticks, and black and green cardamoms pods, and salt. Let the chicken roast slowly on the gas for about an hour. You can turn the chicken over again after half an hour to ensure it cooks evenly.
And that’s it! Move the stuffed chicken onto a platter and serve! Now you’ve started wondering again, haven’t you? Where did the head come from? Why did they cook the chicken with the head? What will they do with it? Or are you one of those people going ‘How gross!’ Let me just tell you that although sometimes we cook the chicken without the head and feet, most times it’s better to cook it with. The head is the most coveted part of the chicken, and so many cousins try to call dibs on it, it almost turns into a fight. Chewing on the creamy chicken brain inside the crunchy head bones is just so gratifying! Try it and see!
What’s Perfect About This Recipe
- Chicken is a low-calorie source of protein as it is a lean meat.
- This Roast Chicken is an all-in-one dish, a meal in itself since it’s already stuffed with liver pudding.
- The spices and aromas from the roast chicken are just tantalizing.
- It’s a fun dish to carve with family and friends at special occasions and gatherings.
Cooking Tips & Tricks
- Make sure you have the Liver stuffing ready before you decide to roast the chicken. We usually make it a day earlier.
- Heat the sugar first so that you get that lovely caramelized burnt flavor.
- Using cow ghee gives a nuttier flavour than oil.
FAQ’s About Roast Chicken
Roast Dinners are not always healthy but are a good comfort food.
Roast Chicken can be served with a side of veggies or salads, or with plain rice.
This chicken roast recipe takes about an hour to cook on a medium flame.
Black cardamom has a smoky flavour whereas green cardamom has a sweet intense flavour. They are also different in sizes and their look.
Other Recipes You Might Like
- Chicken Liver and Bread Stuffing Recipe
- Boiled Egg Salad
- Corn and Cabbage Vegetable
- Kadmat, an East Indian raw mango salad
- Date and Orange cake
- Traditional Vanilla Cream
- East Indian Marzipan Dessert
- East Indian Date Rolls
- Christmas cookies
- Kulkuls, East Indian sweet shells
- Mutton Paya Khudi
- Beef Tongue Roast
- Mustard Chicken with Red Wine
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East Indian Stuffed Roast Chicken Recipe
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Ingredients
- 2 tbsp Sugar To caramelise
- 3 tbsp Cow Ghee Or Oil
- 1 Whole Chicken
- 200 ml Water
- 10 Dried Kashmiri Chillies
- 8 Cloves
- 3 Cinnamon sticks
- 3 Black Cardamom pods Badi Elaichi
- 6 Green Cardamom pods Elaichi
- 2 tbsp Salt
Instructions
- Wash and clean the whole chicken and then fill the cavity of the Chicken with the liver pudding. (If making a simple roast, there's no need for stuffing.)
- Stitch the opening with toothpics and keep the chicken aside.
- In another vessel or wok (we call them a kadais here), burn some sugar and make a caramelised mel.
- Place the chicken in the vessel and allow it to cook and brown for a few minutes.
- Turn the chicken over on its other side and allow it to brown.
- After this add ghee and water.
- Also add the spices and allow to cook for 1 hour on a medium flame.
- Turn the chicken over at the half hour mark so it cooks equally.
- After an hour, the stuffed roast chicken is ready to serve!
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Can I use powdered spices instead?
Hi Sherryann,
You can use powdered spices too. The look might be a bit different, but the flavors are essentially the same. Although you might have to use a little less of the powdered spices as more of the flavor will get imbued in the roast. 🙂
I couldn’t weave the tooth picks like that, so I just stuck them straight through, but it worked. Loved the roast!