Family Favourite - Boat Chicken
- OK, here we go. The first thing that you need to do is to bone the chicken. This is not as difficult as it sounds, but does involve using a sharp knife, so you need to be careful. Start underneath and carefully work your way around. Work away from the skin as much as possible as this will help to keep it all together. Remove all the meat from the carcass and make sure there are no stringy bits in the wings or legs.
- The left-over bones can be used for soup or stock.
- Lay out the chicken and tuck in the wings, legs and any other extra bits of meat (like the bits from underneath called the oysters) which have become separated. Cover with a layer of the streaky bacon and season with salt and pepper.
- Spread over the sausage meat and add any of the extra fruit, nuts, etc. that you fancy.
- Moisten with the sherry or brandy.
- Roll up to make a long, thin sausage.
- Either tie, sew up with string and a large needle or make a parcel using greaseproof paper.
- An alternative is to boil the chicken in a muslin cloth, but I do it in greaseproof paper and put it in a large bread tin to help it retain its shape.
- Roast in an oven at 180 deg C (cooking time is approximately 20 minutes per pound + 20 minutes).
- When it has cooked, allow to cool.
- Pour off the juices.
- Once it is cool, you can open the parcel and place the chicken upside down (so that the opening on the roll is at the bottom).
- Now for the coating...
- Make a white sauce by heating 250 ml of milk in a pan with a large knob of butter. Thicken with cornflour until it hhas the consistency of double cream. Stir in a chicken stock cube and a small pot of plain yoghurt.
- Add curry powder to taste.
- Add melted gelatine and stir in to sauce.
- Pour the sauce over the chicken as it is beginning to set. If you do this too soon, it will run off so a careful timing is needed.
- Place somewhere cool to allow the sauce to set.
- Finally, slice and enjoy. Yum!
So, why the name? I don't know really, but my grandmother sometimes makes this when we go on picnics and we have had it when we have been on boat trips, so maybe that is where the name came from.
Ingredients
To make Boat Chicken you will need the following ingredients:
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