Christmas Roasting with Westinghouse

Chestnut & Wild Mushroom Stuffed Three-Bird Roast

Ingredients

• 1 medium-large chicken (1.8-2kg is ideal)
• 1 pheasant
• 1 duck breast, skinned
• 2 shallots, roughly chopped
• ½ large pack thyme
• 1 large carrot, roughly chopped
• 50g softened butter
• 1 glass of white wine
• 2 tbsp plain flour
• 300ml chicken stock

For the stuffing

• 25g dried porcini mushrooms
• 25g butter
• 2 shallots, finely chopped
• ½ pack thyme
• 100g cooked chestnut, crushed
• 200g good-quality pork sausage, skinned
• small pack parsley, roughly chopped
• Zest 1 lemon, roughly chopped
• 2 tbsp breadcrumb

Method

1. For the stuffing, soak the porcini in 300ml boiling water and set aside for 20 mins, then drain, reserving the liquid, and finely chop. Heat the butter and fry the shallots for 2 mins, then add the mushrooms and cook for 3 mins more. Leave to cool. Mix with all the other stuffing ingredients and set aside.

2. Place the chicken, breast-side down, on the board. Use a sharp boning knife to cut through the skin on the backbone along the length of the bird. Slowly run your knife down against one side of the ribcage, working down the length of the chicken and keeping close to the bone. As you cut, use the other hand to gently pull away the skin and expose the flesh. Pop out the thigh and wing joints and cut through where they are attached to the main carcass. Continue cutting down the side of the bird, keeping the knife as close to the carcass as possible, until you reach the ridge of the breast bone, then repeat with the other side.

3. To remove the carcass completely, snap away the wishbone where it joins at the neck end and carefully cut beneath the breast bone – this is where the skin is at its thinnest, so carefully cut away, then lift and cut away the carcass, as you don’t want to nip or pierce the skin.

4. Open up the chicken, skin-side down, and scrape clean or cut away the thigh bones and any other stray bits of bone or cartilage like the wishbone. Remove the 2 smaller fillets that run along the breast and set aside. Finally, use a larger chopping knife to cut off the feet and wing tips, but don’t discard them.

5. Repeat with the pheasant, but cut the legs off completely so you are left with just the 2 breasts attached by the skin. Cut the legs in half and keep. You should now have the semi-boned chicken, the pheasant breasts, the skinned duck breast and the stuffing. If all that butchery doesn’t appeal, your butcher – with a bit of warning – should be able to prepare all the birds to this stage for you.

6. To assemble the roast, open up the chicken, skin-side down. Put a third of the stuffing between 2 pieces of cling film and use a rolling pin to roll it out flat so that it just covers the surface area, then place on top of the chicken. Lay the duck breast in the middle of the stuffing, cover with a layer of stuffing, then add the pheasant breasts, skin-side down. Add a final layer of stuffing and lay the 2 chicken mini fillets on top.

7. Tuck in the top and bottom edges of the chicken and pull the two long edges together. Tuck one edge of it over the other so everything is rolled together and neatly encased, then flip over. Using butcher’s string, tie the chicken at regular intervals around the width, then tie it once around the length to hold the stuffing in. Finally, tie the legs together. Can be prepared to this stage and chilled up to 1 day ahead.

8. Heat oven to 200°C/180°C fan. Scatter the shallots, thyme and carrot into a roasting tin with the pheasant legs and chicken wing tips. Place the roast on the vegetables and rub all over with the softened butter. Pour the wine over, then season generously. Put the tin in the oven and cook for 1 hr 40 mins until beautifully browned all over, or until a digital cooking thermometer reads 68°C (or above) when inserted in the middle. Remove, loosely cover with foil, and leave to rest somewhere warm for 30 mins.

9. While the roast is resting, make the gravy. Place the tin on a low flame if flameproof, or tip the contents into a saucepan if not. Scatter over the flour and cook until light brown. Gradually pour in the mushroom soaking liquid, then the chicken stock. Simmer everything together until you have a smooth, thickened gravy, adding any resting juices from the roast. Season to taste, then strain the gravy through a sieve into another saucepan. When the roast has rested, remove the string, carefully carve into thick slices and sprinkle with thyme.

Recipe by Barney Desmazery (BBC Good Food).

Make it with Westinghouse’s 90cm Pyrolytic Oven

Make your Christmas roast with the impressive, family-friendly Westinghouse 90cm Pyrolytic Oven. Feed a crowd with the large 125L capacity, so you can cook your roast alongside your sides at the same time, saving you time and effort.

Enjoy the flexibility of 12 cooking programs such as Rapid Heating, Bake, Maxi Grill and Roast. The perfect cooking companion for your Christmas roast is the ‘EasyBake +Steam’ function that adds a touch of steam to your cooking. What this means is that your roast will turn out succulent with a delicious soft centre as opposed to dry and tasteless.

Top: The spacious 125L cooking capacity makes this Westinghouse oven perfect
for any family home.

Complement your roast with sides of your choice. If you usually fry potato chips, you’ll be glad to know that this Westinghouse 90cm Pyrolytic Oven boasts an AirFry function. Just lightly spray the AirFry trays with oil, place your food on the trays, spray a bit more oil and let the oven do the hard work. You don’t even have to turn the food halfway as the heat cooks your food evenly. With the AirFry function, the whole family can indulge in healthy treats, minus the excessive amount of oil.

Eat, be merry and clean up effortlessly with the 2x Pyrolytic cleaning cycles. When in use, the PyroClean function heats the oven with high temperatures of up to 300°C which turns food grime into ash. As food remnants are being ‘burnt’, the oven is going through a self-cleaning cycle, so you don’t have to spend time scrubbing the oven. Once the pyrolytic cleaning cycle is complete, all you have to do is wipe the ash down with a soft cloth without the need for harmful chemicals.

Top: Make healthier fried treats for the whole family to enjoy with the AirFry function.

Take the hard work out of Christmas entertaining! Make your festivities one to remember with a delicious three-bird roast in an entertainer’s delight that is the Westinghouse 90cm Pyrolytic Oven.