Have I spent my entire adult life stuffing the wrong end of chickens?

[ReanimatedSGB]

(Non-meat-eating MNers may want to skip this thread)

One of those fairly rare Sundays where I have decided to do a roast chicken for tea. I made up the Paxo, put the bird in the roasting pan and happened to glance at the label I had just removed, which said: stuff the neck end. My policy has always been (at least in my head) 'Now you pull its feet out of its arse so you can stuff it.' Am I doing this wrong? Or is the end they tuck the feet into the neck end anyway? And if it's not, how the fuck do you get the stuffing in the other end?

(It's clearly not dangerously wrong as nobody has ever suffered from eating my bum-stuffed chickens.)

(And don't tell me to cook the stuffing in a separate dish, because that's just barbaric.)

[Fekko]

I don't eat chicken but I always thought you shoved the stuffing and a lemon up its nethers.

[Alwaysatyke]

If you stuff it up the bum (fnar fnar) the hot air can't circulate as well and there's a risk of undercooking (or having to overcook some bits to get it done all the way through). You don't get this problem if you stuff the neck end as the hole doesn't go anywhere so no need for air to circulate

[AppleAndBlackberry]

You can do either I think but to get that nice carved slice with a ribbon of stuffing like on TV adverts you put the stuffing in between the breast and the skin, pulling them apart a bit. For turkeys anyway, I've never bothered to stuff a chicken, I just do balls.

[HarryDresdensLeatherDuster]

You stuff the neck! You put herbs or fruit in the main cavity to infuse the meat!

[Fekko]

Poor chicken. How undignified!

[allegretto]

You can do both (or neither).

[BowlingShoes]

Like Always said, stuffing should be out in the neck end to reduce the risk of food poisoning from undercooking.

[Bestoftimesworstoftimes]

If you're wrong OK then I'm wrong too.

And I cook a mean chicken - it never lasts a legendary life of leftover because it's so delicious it gets eaten ! Nobody sick yet as far as I'm aware

[Bestoftimesworstoftimes]

OP not ok!

But kind of fits the you're ok I'm ok mentality

[reetgood]

Neck, always neck. But often advised to do stuffing seperately to avoid risk of food poisoning and I have to admit, that’s what I do. Whichever end you stuff, leave room at top for air to circulate (so neck is better).

[MotherofPearl]

I've never bothered to stuff a chicken, I just do balls.

[Notreallyarsed]

I’m sorry OP but that title made me laugh out loud, “bum-stuffed chickens” didn’t help and my kids are wondering why I’m crying laughing. (I have no idea which end of a chicken to stuff, I do stuffing balls)

[Miniwerewolfhugs]

In the past people did stuff the entire chicken but now we are advised to just stuff the neck ends due to the risk of food poisoning. I sometimes put a half lemon or onion inside the body cavity.

[EllieMentry]

I do what Delia says (or said in the ancient edition of her book that I use) and stuff the neck end, then put what's left in the other end, leaving room for air to circulate.

[ReanimatedSGB]

But how do you stuff its neck? How? I don't know where you lot get your chickens from but that's always seemed to be the shut end.

[PickAChew]

I think it matters less for chickens than for turkeys. Stuffing the cavity of a small bird can keep the breast moist, while making sure the legs are properly cooked but with a larger bird, there would be too much bulk unless you did leave a large air gap.

[SlimDogMillionaire]

Same! My chickens only have one opening. Wtaf?

[PickAChew]

And to stuff the neck, you wedge it between the breasts and fold the skin over it. Not much room on a 3-4lb chicken, tbh.

[paxillin]

Bottom. Apples don't fit down the neck.

[JesusInTheCabbageVan]

If you put a lemon up there, don't you end up with weird lemony gravy?

[sussexman]

I've been cooking our roasts for ahem years now. Stuffing goes in the neck end (or separate). Therefore chickens don't get stuffed. Too much palaver.

If it's lemons, shove up their arse! That does happen sometimes. :)

[WhatWouldLeslieKnopeDo]

I'm a lifelong vegetarian so I'm not really qualified to contribute. But
I love watching Delia's Christmas programme and when she stuffs her turkey/goose/bird of some sort she loosens the skin and pushes the stuffing underneath. There's some vague instructions here. So you don't push stuffing down its actual neck.

[roundaboutthetown]

I think you don't know your head from your arse.

[Bluetrews25]

I think you have been stuffing the neck end, OP. The parson's nose is that triangular flappy bit where the tail feathers attach (= bum end), the feet get shoved in the neck. HTH.

[Puzzledandpissedoff]

For anyone who's confused over which end is which, try turning the chicken over so the breast points towards the ground (as it would have done in life). Bounce it up and down and make clucking noises if it helps with the realism

It should then become obvious that the small opening is the neck and the big one the backside ... wet-type stuffing goes in the first and aromatics (lemon halves, bay leaves etc) in the second