Chicken contised with Montbéliard sausage like a beef stew

Ingredients

3 sausages from Montbéliard (previously cooked and cooled)

A piece of country bacon 

A good-sized free range chicken

2 yellow onions

6 turnips

8 carrots

4 white leeks

1 small celeriac 

1 spices blend (2 tsp pepper / 5 cloves / 1 tsp juniper berries / 1 tsp pink berries)

Preparation of the recipe:

1 - Preparation of the chicken : Slice the pre-cooked Montbéliard sausage (20 minutes in still simmering water) into thin slices about 1.5 mm thick. Peel the skin off the meat of the chicken by sliding your fingers between the two. Carry out this step delicately so as not to damage the product. Then insert the Montbéliard sausage rings evenly between the flesh and skin of your chicken, and finish by inserting the piece of peasant bacon cut in half inside the latter. (This last step is not essential; it does, however, enhance the taste of your preparation.) Then close the skin of your chicken by making a seam with the help of a kitchen string

2 - Preparation of vegetables : Peel and wash all of your vegetables, roughly chop them (carrots in 2 for example) Gather your spices in a cloth or gauze to prevent them from dispersing in the cooking water

3 - Cooking : Start cooking your poultry with your spices at first (the latter will take longer to cook than the vegetables) After 1 hour of cooking, in simmering water, add the vegetables and simmer for another 45 minutes. Control the cooking of your poultry by pricking it with a blade, the latter must enter easily and the juice which comes out must not be too pink

4 - Presentation : Place your poultry in the center of a large dish and divide the vegetables around it. Serve hot and enjoy without waiting!

Tips: Save the cooking broth : it can be used for other recipes! If the stringing step scares you, wrap your poultry in a clean tea towel to cook it like a ballotine " en papillote".

This dish goes wonderfully with a gribiche sauce. You can use the same technique to make a naturally fragrant roasted chicken.