Name: Pollo ripieno in agrodolce (Poached Sweet-and-Sour Stuffed Chicken with Meatballs)
Yield: Serves 4 to 6
Cuisine: Italy
Ingredients: ½ teaspoon saffron threads, crushed and steeped in 2 tablespoons hot water for 15 minutes; 2 slices coarse country bread, crusts removed, soaked in milk, and squeezed almost dry; 4 to 6 olive oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes; 2 teaspoons sugar; 1 carrot, peeled and chopped; 1 egg; Grated zest of 1 lemon; 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature; ½ cup mashed cooked potato; 1 cup dried bread crumbs; ¾ cup raisins, plumped in hot water and drained; 1 chicken, about 5 pounds; 6 tablespoons grated pecorino cheese; 1 yellow onion, chopped; ⅔ pound ground beef; 1 celery stalk, chopped; 3 tablespoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley; 2 fresh flat-leaf parsley sprigs; Salt and freshly ground black pepper; 2 eggs; ¼ cup chopped walnuts; 2 fresh mint sprigs; ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

Preparation info

Serves
4 to 6

Difficulty
Medium

Appears in

Italian Slow and Savory

By Joyce Goldstein

Published 2004

About

Sardinian cooks make wonderful stuffed chicken dishes. In Cagliari, the island’s largest city, the locals stuff chickens and then simmer them in broth, rather than roast them. The rich broth is then used to poach meatballs for serving alongside the chicken and stuffing, or you can use the broth to cook the meatballs, adding some fregola pasta as well, if desired, and offer the simple meatball soup before the chicken. The bird is also good served at room te