(Chicken galantine - Authentic Italian recipes)

Chicken galantine, Italian recipe made with chicken and veal meat, ham and other salami, pistachios, black truffles

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1 1,5 kg (3.3 lb) full chicken
80 g (3 oz) Italian mortadella in a slice
80 (3 oz) cooked ham in a slice
80 g (3 oz) bacon in two slices
600 g (1.3 lb) lean veal, minced
1 little black truffle, if you want
30 g (1 oz) pistachio nuts
1 egg
1 50 g (1 3/4 oz) dry bread roll
Marsala liqueur
Milk
1 80 g (3 oz) carrot
1 80 g (3 oz) young fresh onion
1 30 g (1 oz) stalk celery
500 ml (16 fl oz - 2C) aspic jelly
2 cloves
A pinch of cinnamon
A pinch of nutmeg
Salt
Pepper, if you like

Time:
preparation: 60 minutes plus marinating and cooling time
cooking: 80 minutes
Difficulty:
difficult recipe
Nutrition Facts (amount per serving):
Calories: XX (kCal) - XX (kJ)
Protein: XX (g)
Total fat: XX (g)
Total carbohydrate: XX (g)
Sugars: XX (g)

Begin the day before.
Blaze the chicken (blazing means you have to pass it quickly over a flame in order to flame its skin and little feathers). Then cut the neck off. Place it on a chopping board with the chest down; remove the skin and tear off the flesh from the bones. You have to dice the breast; mince the remaining flesh.
Cut the ham, mortadella and bacon into strips (or cube them if you prefer). Let the chicken breast marinate in Marsala for about 2 hours together with the ham, mortadella and bacon.
Soak the dry bread roll in the milk and then squeeze it very well.
In a bowl mix the minced chicken with the lean veal, squeezed bred, egg (add a yolk if necessary), a pinch of cinnamon and nutmeg. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Mix until you form a compact and homogeneous mixture.
Place a white, large canvas on the chopping board. Put the meat mixture on it shaping in a rectangular form. Pat dry the chicken breast, ham, mortadella and bacon with chicken paper and arrange them on the meat mixture. Add the pistachio nuts (skinned in boilig water) and the truffle, sliced.
Roll all the ingredients shaping in a rounded form. Wrap the galantine tightly in the white canvas, and tie it well at the edges with kitchen string.
Put the galantine in a large casserole. Add the peeled carrot, onion in which you stuck the cloves, celery, cleaned and washed, a little salt and cover it all with water. Bring to the boil, then lower the flame and keep on cooking for an hour.
Let the galantine cool in the casserole. Then remove the galantine from the canvas, put it on a serving plate, cover it with another serving plate and place a weight on the second plate. Let it at room temperature overnight.
Prepare the aspic jelly, pour it into a rectangular pan and put in the fridge.
The day after put the galantine in the fridge; take to room temperature before serving.
Serve it sliced with diced jelly as you can see in the photo.

Note

- This is a quick version of chicken galantine. If you want to follow the traditional recipe you have to wrap the galantine in the chicken skin and then in the canvas. In this case the recipe needs more time. In fact you have to remove the skin from the chicken with delicacy; it must have no cuts. So ... place the chicken on a chopping board with the chest down. Cut the chicken in the middle of the back with a sharp knife with a straight incision from the neck down to the tail. Then keep on discarding the skin without damaging it, continuing to tear off the flesh from the bones, cutting wings and thigh joints to make the operation easier. The secon step is to remove the skin from the flesh. Then marinate the skin in Marsala with the other ingredients, wrap the galantine in it, stitch the edges and wrap in the canvas.
Remember that chicken skin is fat and so the recipe will have more fat if you use the skin too!
- There are a lot of recipes in Italy about chicken galantine. Someone use other salami such as raw ham, or corned tongue or lard ... If you use raw ham remember to remove its fat and mince it together with chicken breast. Someone use roasted chicken; this recipe is easier, isn't it? Someone use white wine instead of Marsala to marinate.
- In Italy we use to prepare chicken galantine for Holidays (appetizers) but it's a perfect cold dish for other important occasions. It's ideal for a summer dinner (accompany it with boiled vegetables or a seasonal dalad) or a buffet.
- In the photo the aspic jelly is green beacause we wanted to create a nice plate for a buffet and so we coloured the jelly.