There are many other ways to stuff poultry, but none as delicious as this one. Every time I make this I am brought back to a good day in my childhood, one or two chickens roasting in the oven and my apron clad grandmother preparing the rest of the meal for our large family. Yes the aroma that this stuffing gives to the bird is unmistakable!
For an entire chicken I would increase the eggs to six and use maybe 3-4 slices of bread. The recipe for this stuffing does not have to be exact, the amounts given are arbitrary. Sometimes I omit the mushrooms, but what I insist upon is fresh parsley and good quality European style bread. My grandmother always used zsömle, [white crusty buns], but the version of crusty bun I can get lacks the substance we need. If I end up with leftover stuffing, I form it into a log or a mound and roast it beside the chicken. I take it out earlier though, on its own the stuffing doesn’t require as long to bake as the meat. Come to think of it this stuffing would be a perfect meat substitute for a vegetarian.
HUNGARIAN CHICKEN STUFFING
1/2 small onion, diced
bunch of fresh parsley, chopped
4 mushrooms, diced
2 Tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper
4 eggs
2-3 pieces of sourdough or light rye bread
• Dice the onions and chop the parsley and mushrooms.
• Soak the bread slices with water and squeeze them out as well as possible.
• Place damp bread slices in a mixing bowl and set it aside.
• Place the oil in a non stick fry pan and add the diced onions.
• Sauté the onions on medium heat until translucent, but do not brown.
• Season the onions with salt and pepper.
• Add the chopped parsley and mushrooms and sauté for half a minute.
• Now whisk the eggs together and pour them on the onion mixture.
• When the eggs are almost cooked, it will look like scrambled eggs, remove from heat.
• Add the entire contents of the fry pan to the damp bread in the mixing bowl.
• Taste it and add more salt if needed and season with ground pepper and toss.
• Stuff the chicken and bake.
bread was soaked and squeezed
onion and mushroom sauted
stuffing ready
