Name: Chickens as Lizards
Yield: Serves 8
Cuisine: United Kingdom
Ingredients: 2 chickens, 2½ to 3 lb (1 to 1½ kg) boned by cutting along the backs, drumsticks and wing tips cut off before boning; 24 stoned green olives, chopped; 6 artichoke hearts, tinned or fresh, or 1 unpeeled cucumber; 2 cucumbers, thinly sliced without peeling, salted and left to drain for 1 hour; 4 currants, capers or black olives; ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper; 1 tablespoon chopped parsley; 2 lettuces (Webbs or iceberg), the hearts cut in solid sections, about 8 from each lettuce; ¾ lb (360 g) sliced and lightly fried mushrooms; ⅝ cup (3 dl) green mayonnaise; 2 teaspoons dried thyme; 8 strips of fresh, sweet red pepper or tinned pimiento, or 8 radishes cut into roses; 1 large onion, stuck with 8 cloves; 2 well-beaten eggs; 1 teaspoon salt; 1 lb (½ kg) sausage meat; 1⅛ cups (180 g) fresh fine white breadcrumbs; 6 slices streaky bacon

Preparation info

Serves
8

Difficulty
Medium

Appears in

English Provincial Cooking

By Elisabeth Ayrton

Published 1980

About

This elaborate recipe is given as an example of the time and trouble, skill and imagination expected of English cooks to the royal family and the rich in producing a dish which was not only good to eat, but also of unusual and interesting appearance.

The desire to disguise one bird or animal as another, or to combine two, such as a hare and a chicken, to make a mythical creature, comes from Romano-British cookery. The element of slightly off-colour humour in making an acceptable chi