Deboned Stuffed Chicken: With An Easy Tutorial
The Deboned Stuffed Chicken is a Southern Louisiana specialty meat item, stuffed with delicious fillings such as dressing, meat, or vegetables. It is heavily seasoned with a Cajun seasoning blend and yields juicy chicken flavor when sliced into each boneless serving.
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For more recipes for a good Cajun dinner like this stuffed chicken, check out 20 Cajun Thanksgiving Recipes For Your Holiday Menu from Louisiana Woman's recipe box. Discover authentic Cajun flavor all year long, from appetizers to desserts; they may steer you away from your traditional Thanksgiving meal, but they won't disappoint!
Tutorial Video
Sharing some of my Cajun heritage and classic recipes from just south of LA 14 is so much fun. Here's a video on deboning and stuffing a whole chicken, or a poulet (pronounced poo-let), as we call them back home. Enjoy this delicious specialty meat item that's a treat and so easy to prepare.
Ingredients For A Stuffed Whole Chicken
- 4 lb chicken
- Cajun Seasoning
- stuffing
- Butcher twine
Equipment
- long fillet knife and/or small pairing knife, sharpened
- large cookie sheet or cutting board
Instructions
- Place rinsed and dried chicken on a large cookie sheet or cutting board.
- Break the tips of the leg bones off with the back of the blade of a large knife by giving the leg bone a firm whack. This helps when tying the legs with twine after stuffing the bird, keeping them in place.
- Cut the tip ends off at the first joint of both wings, leaving the wing bones inside the chicken. These are the only bones left in the chicken. Discard the tips.
- Remove the wishbone with a sharp knife by cutting through the meat on both sides at the top of the breast along the wishbone. Then, pull the wishbone out with your fingers and discard it; sometimes, it breaks into pieces. This will allow you to slice right through the chicken after it's cooked.
- Lay the chicken with its breast side down and backside up. Cut along the backbone skin from top to bottom using a sharp, long fillet knife or a short carving knife. Use what is comfortable for you.
- Rinse and dry the chicken.
- On one side of the cut, start carving, keeping the skin and meat together. Cut the skin and meat away from the chicken carcass toward the breastbone, starting from the chicken's neck to its bottom. At about three-fourths down the back, cut out the oyster from the backbone and continue toward the bottom or rear of the chicken.
- Return to the top of the chicken and, with your knife, cut away the wing bone at its joint from the carcass. Leave the wing bone in the chicken.
- Continue slicing the breast meat away from the bone along the side of the rib cage toward the chicken's rear.
- Cut away the thigh bone at the joint from the carcass.
- Continue cutting the meat from the carcass down toward the front of the breast bone.
- Do the same on the other side of the chicken, cutting and removing the whole carcass from the meat. Some people have enough strength in their hands to easily pull the carcass away from the meat. Use the carcass and bones to make stock or broth.
- Next, use a small, sharp knife to cut meat around the thigh joint and scrape down the thigh bone to the leg joint.
- Cut meat from around the leg joint, scrape meat from the leg bone, and pull the leg bone out. Remember how the leg tip was broken away from the leg bone in step 2, making this removal easy.
- Do the same with the other thigh and leg bones. Again, discard the bones and boil them in water to make a chicken broth, or add vegetables to the bones and water to make a chicken stock.
- Now you can season the deboned chicken. Stuff with your choice of stuffing and tie it up or sew up its backside through the skin with butcher twine to keep the stuffing in place before freezing or baking. I have found that letting it marinate in the refrigerator for several hours before freezing or cooking helps to tenderize the meat.
- If frozen, place the chicken in a baking pan to defrost. Then bake at 375 degrees for 1 hour. Let it sit for a few minutes, then slice it and serve. It's delicious and so juicy!
Variations
Below is a list of stuffings for the deboned chicken.
- cornbread dressing
- rice dressing
- boudin
- fresh sausage
- broccoli cheese
- crawfish etouffee
- roasted vegetables
- jambalaya
Substitutions
Instead of using a chicken, one can debone a duck, a whole turkey, or a turkey breast, stuff it, and tie it up before freezing or baking. Before the deboned stuffed chicken was the popular turducken, a deboned stuffed chicken inside a deboned duck with stuffing inside a deboned turkey with more stuffing.
Top Tip
Be sure to use a sharp knife and give it special attention, taking your time, when handling the knife to debone the chicken.
Questions
How do you stuff a deboned chicken?
First, debone the chicken and lay it flat, skin side down, with the boneless meat exposed. Spread the stuffing on top of the exposed meat. Bring the chicken sides back together to form one whole chicken, and sew up or tie the chicken with butcher twine to keep the stuffing inside. Bake and serve.
How do you debone a chicken?
Take a sharp knife and cut the chicken down its backbone. Start chiseling the meat away from the bone, and remove the carcass and leg bones while keeping the skin on the meat in place.
Are stuffed chicken breasts good?
Stuffed chicken breasts are delicious. You can debone them and stuff them with meat, dressings, or vegetables. Slice through the meat, but not all the way through, and place stuffing between the meat. You can also flatten the breast with a mallet and layer the stuffing on top. Then, roll it up, secure it with butcher twine, and roast, bake, or grill it.
Related
Pairing
📖 Recipe
Deboned Stuffed Chicken: With An Easy Tutorial
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 1 hour
- Total Time: 1 hour 20 minutes
- Yield: 1 whole stuffed chicken 1x
- Category: Main Dish
- Method: Bake
- Cuisine: Cajun
Description
Here's an easy tutorial and instructions on how to debone a chicken and stuff it with rice dressing, crawfish etouffee, boudin, broccoli and rice, roasted vegetables, or cornbread dressing.
Ingredients
- 1 whole 4 to 5-pound fryer
- Cajun seasoning blend
- stuffing of your choice (like cornbread stuffing, rice dressing, boudin, crawfish etouffee, broccoli and rice casserole, or roasted vegetables)
- Butcher's twine
Instructions
Rinse and dry the chicken.
-
- Place rinsed and dried chicken on a large cookie sheet or cutting board.
- Break the tips of the leg bones off with the back of the blade of a large knife by giving the leg bone a firm whack. This helps when tying the legs with twine after stuffing the bird to hold the legs in place.
- Cut the tip ends off at the first joint of both wings, leaving the wing bones inside the chicken. These are the only bones left in the chicken. Discard the tips.
- Remove the wishbone with a sharp knife by cutting through the meat on both sides at the top of the breast along the wishbone. Then, pull the wishbone out with your fingers and discard it; sometimes, it breaks into pieces. This will allow you to slice right through the chicken after it's cooked.
- Lay the chicken with its breast side down and backside up. Cut along the backbone skin from top to bottom using a sharp, long fillet knife or a short carving knife. Use what is comfortable for you.
- Rinse and dry the chicken.
- On one side of the cut, start carving, keeping the skin and meat together. Cut them away from the chicken carcass toward the breastbone, starting from the chicken's neck to its bottom. At about three-fourths down the back, cut out the oyster from the backbone and continue toward the bottom or rear of the chicken.
- Return to the top of the chicken and, with your knife, cut away the wing bone at its joint from the carcass. Leave the wing bone in the chicken.
- Continue slicing the breast meat away from the bone along the side of the rib cage toward the chicken's rear.
- Cut away the thigh bone at the joint from the carcass.
- Continue cutting the meat from the carcass down toward the front of the breast bone.
- Do the same on the other side of the chicken, cutting and removing the whole carcass from the meat. Some people have enough strength in their hands to easily pull the carcass away from the meat. Use the carcass and bones to make stock or broth.
- Next, use a small, sharp knife to cut meat around the thigh joint and scrape down the thigh bone to the leg joint.
- Cut meat from around the leg joint, scrape meat from the leg bone, and pull the leg bone out. Remember how the leg tip was broken away from the leg bone in step 2, making this removal easy.
- Do the same with the other thigh and leg bones. Again, discard the bones and boil them in water to make a chicken broth, or add vegetables to the bones and water to make a chicken stock.
- Now you can season the deboned chicken. Stuff with your choice of stuffing and tie it up or sew up its backside through the skin with butcher twine to keep the stuffing in place before freezing or baking. I have found that letting it marinate in the refrigerator for several hours before freezing or cooking helps to tenderize the meat.
- If frozen, place the chicken in a baking pan to defrost. Then bake at 375 degrees for 1 hour. Let it sit for a few minutes, then slice it and serve. It's delicious and so juicy!
Notes
- You can make stock or broth using the carcass and bones.
- Letting the chicken marinate in the refrigerator for several hours before freezing or cooking helps to tenderize the meat.
- These chickens can be stuffed with rice dressing, crawfish etouffee, broccoli and rice, roasted vegetables, and cornbread dressing, and the choices continue.
- I used Zydeco Chop Chop instead of freshly chopped vegetables in my dressing,
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"The wonderful thing about praying is that you leave a world of not being able to do something, and enter God's realm where everything is possible. He specializes in the impossible. Nothing is too great for His almighty power. Nothing is too small for His love."
Corrie Ten Boom
Thank you for sharing your detailed instructions! Looks AWESOME, and I bet I taste good too!