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.)

'Tis the modern way OP. This new-fangled way of stuffing is another way of reducing risk, because you know, we might die if we stuff the wrong end. In the same way, my DD thinks she's going to die if she eats something that is on its bbf date. She wastes so much stuff it makes me v cross.

I've never stuffed a chicken in my life, but so would have definitely assumed the arse end... It's even in the Christmas carols.
'Tis the season to be jolly, tra la la la, la la la la. Stuff the turkeys arse with holly, tra la la la la, la la la LA 🎼🎼
Who could argue with that?

As long as you don't end up like Mr Bean you'll be fine.

Bloody hell. The chicken's arse is between it's legs!

Never known a chicken with it's arse on it's shoulders.

I’ve never stuffed a chicken in my life (that sentence sounds all wrong!)

Skirlie is the only acceptable thing to have with roast chicken, and you make that entirely separately

Looking forward to having this for Xmas Dinner

I stuff both but only for a turkey. I pack it in loosely.

I have a meat thermometer to check for doneness and factor in the weight of the stuffing when calculating roasting time. We rarely have roast chicken here but I put in wads of rosemary and an onion when I do.

That's the way to do it: www.bbcgoodfood.com/videos/techniques/how-stuff-chicken-roasting

Jesus, someone confused me there.

I stuff the largest opening, the one where it’s legs are tucked into. I assumed this was its arse.

I’m with you op, I don’t know how you could stuff rhe little opening. You’d get sod all in there.

Mind you, I hate bones and only eat white breast meat so for years now I’ve only bought breast fillets

Skirlie is still my favourite part of the meal though

Bounce it up and down and make clucking noises if it helps with the realism

There is a real risk of not cooking for long enough at high enough temperature if you stuff the cavity. If you choose to do this, use a meat thermometer to check it’s sufficiently hot to kill off pathogens.
You also can’t carve with stuffing if you put it in the cavity. How do you serve it from inside the carcass?
You should make stuffing (Paxo if you must), lift skin around neck and stuff so that it forms a wedge between the breast and skin. Then tuck skin in again or trim it. Or cook separately.

I just watched that bbc good food video, some of that looks all kinds of wrong, 😂

When you stuff the neck end you basically squash a load of stuffing under the skin flap covering the neck hole and make a nice rounded shape its not a huge amount of stuffing but it does help to stop the breast meat drying out and looks nice. I'm not against putting some stuffing in the large cavity as well if Delia does it, it can't be wrong.

I'm. A stickler for this. You absolutely should be stuffing the neck end.

How is it done?

The stuffing should not go in the cavity, rather it should go under the skin to protect the breast from drying out.

A well cooked chicken should d be I'm the oven for at least 45 minutes. Far too long for the breast meat which would dry out.

So, what you do is you stick yer fingers down it's neck, and then gently tease away the skin from the breastmeat. This creates a cavity in between uthat you can stuff.

The skin will be crispy and the breast meat will be perfectly cooked after an hour on the oven because the stuffing acts as a protective layer, keeping the breast nice and moist!

I very rarely stuff a chicken, but I have been known make a herby/garlicy butter and put it between the breast meat and the skin. I think with turkey I've stuffed both ends (!) and nobody's ever been ill.

Best way is to spatchcock the chicken and place it on top of the stuffing.

I stuff the neck, if you shove your fingers under the flip of skin and wriggle them around a bit you can make a bigger space to shove the stuffing.

My mum always used to stuff the bottom but I found it made the stuffing go a bit ummmm brown (from the cooked blood?).

The only thing you are doing wrong completely op is using paxo. It's as sinful as dried packet gravy.

Fresh sausage meat
Chopped sage
Chopped onion
Breadcrumb
Salt
Pepper
Possibly an egg

Best in a separate dish unless it's Turkey when yes, the neck.

M&S do v good stuffing

OP, the legs are tucked into the open neck end. So I think you have been stuffing the neck end all along. The fatty triangular thing at the other end is the tail.
Happy stuffing!

I have learned something new today! I don't normally stuff chicken, as I tend to buy the pre-stuffed frozen chicken joints don't hate me!. If I buy a whole chicken, I usually put sage leaves or lemon slices under the skin, and occasionally rub flavoured butter or oil on the outside. I had no clue that the stuffing would go under the skin too.

You've probably been roasting it the wrong way up too. Most of us have. Apparently if you roast it breasts down you get a moister bird .

Well, it's about ready to eat now. But I am honestly unsure about which end of a chicken is which, still. It's like those very wooly dogs that you have to put a collar on or a ribbon or something so you know which end to feed...

OP

The end closest to the wings is the neck end.

The end closest to the thighs is the arse end!

OP, the legs are tucked into the open neck end. So I think you have been stuffing the neck end all along. The fatty triangular thing at the other end is the tail.

You have some weirdly shaped birds! The large opening that the legs tuck into with the parsons nose (tail/triangular fatty bit) underneath is its arse. The neck is where the wishbone is, other end from the legs, no hole really just a loose bit of skin you can stuff into.

I alway think the body cavity is a bit yuck and wouldn’t want to eat anything out of it.