Chicken Ballotine in Salt Crust
by Ben Reade. This is a great dish to make at home. It gives the illusion of being technically complicated but is really deceivingly simple, it will cause a wow from guests, and most probably from yourself as well. A ballotine can take many forms, but in one of its classical and perhaps most common guises, it takes the form of a chicken, with all of its bones removed, wrapped around a stuffing of meat and vegetables and roasted. We’ve taken it a small creative stage further, and wrapped it up in a salt dough. We decided to make this with charcoal, the effect being decidedly rustic and theatical. When removed from the oven it seems a loaf of black bread, primal in every sense this really appeals to some basic human urge, especially if cooked in a wood fired oven, this is gastronomy using techniques available to very early man. When … Read more