Preparation time
less than 30 mins
Cooking time
30 mins to 1 hour
Serves
Serves 4
Hairy Bikers recipes
From The Hairy Bikers' Twelve Days of Christmas
Ingredients
- 4 partridges (or poussin)
- 2 tbsp butter
- 2 shallots, peeled, finely chopped
- 100g/3½oz fresh white breadcrumbs
- 150g/5oz good-quality pork sausage meat
- 75g/3oz cooked chestnuts, chopped
- 4 fresh sage leaves, finely chopped
- 4 dried apricots, finely chopped
- 1 lemon, zest only
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 8 streaky bacon rashers
Method
-
Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 5.
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Rinse the partridges, inside and out, then pat dry, inside and out, using kitchen paper. Set aside.
-
Heat half of the butter in a frying pan over a medium heat. Add the shallots and fry for 4-5 minutes, or until softened but not coloured.
-
Mix together the breadcrumbs, sausage meat, chestnuts, sage leaves, apricots and lemon zest in a bowl until well combined. Stir in the cooked onions and season, to taste, with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Set the stuffing mixture aside to cool.
-
When the stuffing mixture has completely cooled, stuff the partridges with it. Place the stuffed partridges into a roasting tray and smear the remaining butter all over them. Top each partridge with two rashers of streaky bacon.
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Roast the stuffed partridges in the oven for 45 minutes, or until cooked through (the partridges are cooked through when the juices run clear when a skewer is inserted into the thickest part of each bird). Set aside to rest for at least 10 minutes before serving.
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Serve with fondant potatoes and pickled pears.