Through the Kitchen Window

For the stuffing:

• 2 large potatoes, diced
• ½ cup red rice
• A bit more than one cup of chicken or vegetable stock
• 3 shallots, finely diced
• ½ medium Vidalia onion, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• Good handful of parsley, minced
• 2 inch piece of kielbasa, sliced into small match sticks

First sauté the kielbasa till browned, remove with a slotted spoon to a bowl and add the diced potatoes to the pan. Allow to cook until the potatoes are starting to become golden and remove to the bowl with the kielbasa. Now add a knob of butter to the pan and sauté the shallots, garlic and sweet onion until translucent, add the rice and stir so that everything is well coated in the butter and slowly add hot stock until the rice is almost cooked through. This should take a bit more than one cup of stock. When cooked, add rice mixture to the potato mixture and stir well to combine. Taste for seasonings and adjust.

For the pan:

Assemble and wash well the following:

• 3 ribs of celery
• 1 medium red onion
• 1 medium sweet onion
• 5 shallots
• 1 large red bell pepper
• 2 medium green cubanelle peppers
• 2 leeks
• 2 medium zucchini
• 2 medium red ripe tomatoes
• about a dozen mushrooms

Dice all of the above so that they are fairly uniform in size (about an inch or so cubed) and place in the bottom of a good size roasting pan (mine is 10 x 15 and about three inches deep) and add:

• five cloves of garlic that you've minced finely
• a handful of parley, also minced
• salt and pepper to taste
• 2 tsp of dried thyme that you've rubbed in the palm of your hand (to release the flavours)
• four sprigs of fresh rosemary

I like to run my fingers along the sprig in the opposite direction of how the leaves grow so as to have the leaves loose in the mixture but you don't need to do this. Drizzle a couple of tablespoons of olive oil over all and stir well to combine.

Putting it all together:

Rinse the chicken and dry it well inside and out, then season the inside of it with salt and pepper generously. Fill the cavity loosely with the stuffing, truss it, and season the outside of the chicken generously as well. Drizzle 2 more tablespoons of olive oil over the breast of the chicken, cover loosely with foil and place in the centre of an oven that's been preheated to 450 degrees.

After 20 minutes, reduce the heat to 375 and allow to cook for 20 more minutes. Reduce the heat once more to 350 and continue cooking for one hour. After one hour, remove the foil covering and let it roast for 30 minutes more until it's nicely golden brown and the juices run clear. I usually "shake hands" with a drum stick and when it's loose and comfy, the bird's ready.