Cooking Chicken Relleno
During special holidays, we often cook Chicken Relleno. Just this last Thanksgiving, we roasted a total of three of these deliciously stuffed chickens. With Christmas and New Year’s Day nearing, we’re expecting to cook even more.
Chicken Relleno is a roasted chicken that has been deboned and stuffed with a mixture of ground pork, Filipino hot dogs, and eggs. The pork stuffing is the key component to the dish. I first learned how to make the pork stuffing recipe from my Dad. With Chicken Relleno, the hardest part is to debone the chicken. Once you’re able to do that, this recipe is fairly simple to follow.
Ingredients
1 Whole Chicken (Deboned)
Soy Sauce
Lemon Juice
1 Bulb of Chopped Garlic
1 Can of Sprite
2 tbs. Sugar
1 1/2 Pounds of Ground Pork
2 Shredded Carrots
1 Large Diced Potato
1/2 Cup of Raisins
6 Beaten Raw Eggs
Salt
Pepper
2 Filipino Hot Dogs
2 Sliced Hard Boiled Eggs
Steps
You must start with a whole deboned chicken. It is easiest to start the deboning process by slicing the back skin portion of the chicken and detaching the meat from the bone. Work your way from the back, the wings, the thighs, and finally the breast. Later, you will sew back together the skin opening, after stuffing the chicken.
Next, in a large bowl, combine 1/2 Cup of soy sauce, 1/2 Cup of lemon juice, garlic, Sprite, sugar, and 1/2 tbsp. of pepper. Place the whole deboned chicken in the marinade for 2-3 hours. We prefer to marinade the chicken overnight in the refrigerator.
In another large bowl, mix together the ground pork, eggs, carrots, potato, raisins, 1-2 tbs. of salt, and 1 tbsp. of pepper. While mixing, begin to boil two eggs that will be sliced and placed into the stuffing later on.
When it comes to the stuffing part, following these step by step photos below might help. First take some of the pork stuffing to fill the chicken. Next, lay out the hot dogs and eggs inside. Take the remainder of pork stuffing to fill the chicken again. The whole chicken should be very plump by now. With a sewing needle and thread, stitch the skin of the chicken to enclose the stuffing.
Bake the chicken in a deep pan for 2-2 1/2 hours at 350°F.
With Chicken Relleno, you should be able to cut into the chicken and serve slices of it, similar to a meatloaf.
