Name: The Pregnant Chicken (Il-Dijaaja ‘l-Haamil)
Yield: Makes 6 servings
Cuisine: Iraqi
Ingredients: Hold the chicken with one hand and with the fingers of the other, starting with the neck part, separate skin from flesh, going down slowly all the way to the thighs, taking care not to pierce the skin with your nails. This will create a pocket to hold stuffing between meat and skin.; Fill the regular cavity with stuffing, and fill it well since the rice is cooked. Sew the cavity closed. Then fill the pocket you have created with as much filling as it can hold, pushing the filling down to the thighs, the breast area, the wings, and the back. Sew the neck opening closed to prevent filling from coming out.; Remove any of the filling that might have stuck to the chicken. Place the prepared chicken on a greased broiler/grill pan, and spray it lightly with oil or rub it with yogurt. Discard any filling that might have come into contact with the uncooked chicken.; Roast as directed for Stuffed Chicken, fifth step.

Preparation info

Makes
6
servings

Difficulty
Medium

Appears in

Delights from the Garden of Eden

By Nawal Nasrallah

Published 2019

About

An amusing method for stuffing chicken, which I learnt from my friends in Mosul, in northern Iraq. Once we were invited to dinner, and there in the middle of the table was a huge stuffed bird. At first glance, I thought it was a large duck, but I was corrected – it was an ordinary chicken, stuffed between the skin and the meat, as well as in the cavity. The chicken looked hilariously puffy, and we nicknamed it ‘the pregnant chicken.’ The advantage of putting the filling between the skin and