Chicken Ballontine with Truffle

Nicky Riemer - Head Chef - Union Dining

Ingredients

1 truffle the size of a golf ball. If you are feeling generous!
1 x 1.6kg Organic free range chicken deboned
Butchers twine
1 large head of garlic
100g unsalted butter at room temperature
20g EuroPantry Cream of Porcini Mushrooms and White Truffles
½ bunch of parsley – leaves picked and chopped
1 carrot
1 celery stick
1 onion
1 fennel bulb
2 bay leaves
¼ bunch of thyme
200ml chicken stock
200ml white wine
150g crème fraiche
Olive oil for cooking
Sea salt flakes
Fresh ground pepper

Method

Place the garlic head in an oven at 180’C for 40 minutes – or until the skin starts to turn golden and if feels soft – remove from the oven and allow to cool.
When cool to touch, cut in half through the middle and squeeze out the soft garlic cloves, mix with the butter at room temperature and the chopped parsley season and set aside.
Debone the chicken as per the method for a chicken ballontine (or ask your poulterer to do it for you).
Lay out the deboned chicken, season the flesh side and coat generously with the seasoned garlic parsley butter.
Roll up the chicken and tie with butchers twine.
Season the outside of the chicken and rub with a small amount of olive oil.
Roughly chop the carrot, celery, onion, thyme, bay leaves and fennel and scatter in a roasting dish.
Seal the ballontine of chicken in a hot non stick fry pan till all the skin is golden,then deglaze with the wine and chicken stock, then remove chicken and place on vegetables on roasting tray and pour over the deglazing juices.
Place in the oven at 180’C and roast for 40 minutes or until the internal cooking temperature of the chicken is 71’C or higher – remove from the oven, allow to rest for 5 to 10 minutes then slice into thick slices.
While the chicken is resting, add the strained roasting juices to a saucepan, add the crème fraiche and the tartufata, allow to reduce lightly to a sauce consistency.
Add the sliced roasted chicken to the serving platter with your favourite roast potatoes and spoon over the sauce , shave over lashings of fresh truffle and serve immediately.