Herb Butter Roasted Chicken with Cornbread Pomegranate Stuffing

It’s funny that what started out as me blogging about how I don’t have enough time to use my CSA veggies turned in to one of the more elaborate and time-consuming meals I have made in quite some time. But what can I say, you all inspire me. I decided to start off the CSA Challenge with a bang and was inspired by the upcoming fall flavors to make some delicious meal that involved stuffing a bird. It so happened that my chicken and egg CSA from Soul Food Farm came in on Wednesday afternoon, so that decided it.

I love stuffing. I always have. It is the best part of Thanksgiving and it is a damn shame to me that the rest of the year is so painfully barren of the stuff. Sometimes in college during particularly stressful exam periods I would subsist entirely off of microwavable Stovetop Stuffing. Disgusting, you say, scornfully? No. DELICIOUS. I am not the kind of food-loving sort who scorns things like ketchup and mayonaise and, indeed, Stovetop Stuffing. I grew up drinking Carnation Instant Breakfast, my friends. So there is some love of processed foods in me, yet.

But I digress. I was saying: STUFFING. It is delicious, and the best and most delicious of all is, I would argue, CORNBREAD STUFFING. I’m telling you, nothing better. And you could go out and buy some cornbread, I suppose, but as I said I was on a rush of menu inspiration and I have come a long way from my Stovetop days and so I whipped up some quick cornbread from scratch. Cornbread is ridiculously easy to make. It’s unclear why I don’t make it every day, being as obscenely delicious as it is.

So cornbread was made, onions sauteed, pomegranate seeds and chicken stock thrown in, and voila. You have a stuffing fit for kings. Or at least fit to be stuffed into our delicious Soul Food chicken.

Click the jump below food-porn for the full recipes AND to find out the winner of the CSA Challenge Commenter Prize!

Cornbread

3/4 cup cornmeal
1 cup flour
1/3 cup sugar
1 tbs. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup milk
1 egg, well beaten
2 tbs. melted bacon fat or shortening

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Grease a baking dish (I used a 9×13 inch glass dish which worked well for the thin, dry cornbread I needed to make stuffing. If making to eat on its own I would use a smaller 8×8 inch dish).

Mix together the cornmeal, flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Add the milk, egg, and bacon fat and blend. Pour into baking dish and bake for 20 minutes or until well done (for stuffing the bread should be quite dry, it helps to overbake the bread here a bit if making bread and stuffing the same day. I have been known not to plan ahead when it comes to cooking).

Cornbread Pomegranate Stuffing

1 batch cornbread, dried and crumbled
2 tbs. butter
1 onion, chopped
seeds from one pomegranate
1 tsp fresh thyme, finely chopped
1 tsp fresh rosemary, finely chopped
1/2 to 1 cup chicken or vegetable stock
salt and pepper

Melt butter in a large saucepan. Add onion and cook until softened. When soft, add herbs, salt, and pepper and mix well. Add the crumbled breadcrumbs and stir to combine. When breadcrumbs are well moistened add pomegranate seeds and mix. Slowly add stock and stir to mix until stuffing reaches desired consistency. The amount of stock needed will depend on how dry your cornbread is; mine was quite dry and I used nearly a cup of broth. Start with a half-cup and add slowly, mixing after each addition.

For vegetarian stuffing, put into a baking dish and bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes. If using to stuff poultry see recipe below.

Herb Butter Roasted Chicken

1 whole chicken, rinsed and patted dry
1 to 2 tbs fresh herbs of your liking (I used thyme, rosemary, and sage)
2 tbs butter, room temperature
cornbread stuffing recipe (above)
salt
pepper

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Season chicken inside and out with salt and pepper. Stuff chicken with cornbread stuffing in all cavities. Rub herb butter over chicken. Bake for 15 minutes per pound, or until nicely browned on outside and cooked through. Baste chicken every 15 minutes with drippings, using melted butter for first 15 or 30 minutes, if needed.

For a delicious gravy: whisk together equal parts drippings and flour over medium heat, using additional butter if needed. Add chicken stock until desired consistency is reached (I used about 1 1/2 tbs drippings and flour and 1/2 of stock, total).

Re-looking at this post and noting its length I fully admit that this is not my standard go-to Wednesday night fare. Indeed this is probably not the answer to my CSA-woes, which in large part are due to a (hem) LACK of time to make such elaborate (yet tasty) meals. But it WAS incredibly delicious. And sometimes it’s nice to spend some time in the kitchen, being indulgent. A celebratory feast to start off the challenge right. We ate the roast chicken with an arugula and butternut squash salad (bam! two more items off the list), which could have been another meal in itself. That and more Challenge Recipes coming soon!

CSA Challenge Progress

2 pomegranates
1 bunch arugula
1 medium butternut squash
3 heads bok choy
3 medium leeks
3 persimmons
1 bunch spinach
1 head bib lettuce
1 bunch chard
6 medium carrots
3 turnips
1 head raddichio

And… The winner of the CSA Challenge Prize is…..!

As promised, there is a winner for one of the commenters for the CSA Challenge! Assigning each commenter a number in the order they commented (not including myself) and using a random number generator lucky commenter number 4 (Hi Alli!) was picked to win! Alli you win your choice of a homecooked item mailed to you OR you can join us for one of our remaining CSA Challenge meals! I’ll contact you over email and you can let me know which delicious prize you prefer. Thanks for commenting!