Prune and Walnut Stuffed Chicken Skin

So here is my first attempt to make a chicken skin stuffed with ground chicken meat, walnuts, prunes and some other ingredients. I’ve got a recipe for a friend of mine and had to try.

It is a bit tricky game to get chicken out of its skin w/o damaging the skin, but I managed it (and prepared step-by-step instructions with photos along the way).

The only hiccup I had on the way was with bacon. The smoked bacon I used had very powerful and distinctive taste, and it mostly took over the taste of other ingredients. So for this recipe I suggest to use smaller amount of non-smoked bacon, or replace it with ground pork instead.

Ingredients:

1 big whole chicken
3oz-4oz of bacon (can be substituted with pork meat or skipped altogether)
1 egg
4 oz of dried pitted prunes
4 oz of cleaned walnuts
2-3 small cloves of garlic
Small bunch of green parsley
Ground black pepper (and other spices you like with the chicken) to taste
Salt to taste
2 tablespoons of tkemali sauce (can be replaced with honey and melted butter mix)
A bit of oil

How to prepare, step-by-step:

Prepare ingredients: rinse prunes with hot water and drain, remove pits if needed; rinse chicken outside and inside, pat it dry with paper towel; rinse parsley:
Prune and Walnut Stuffed Chicken Skin Recipe: Step 1
Carefully remove chicken skin in whole peace (keep the skin):
Prune and Walnut Stuffed Chicken Skin Recipe: Step 2
Separate meat from bones (discard bones or use them to cook a chicken broth) and slice meat into smaller pieces:
Prune and Walnut Stuffed Chicken Skin Recipe: Step 3
Using meat grinder, chop chicken meat, bacon (or pork), prunes and walnuts together:
Prune and Walnut Stuffed Chicken Skin Recipe: Step 4
Peel and grind garlic as well:
Prune and Walnut Stuffed Chicken Skin Recipe: Step 5
Add salt, ground black pepper and other spices you like to the bowl (I used Georgian khmeli suneli spice mix in addition to salt and pepper):
Prune and Walnut Stuffed Chicken Skin Recipe: Step 6
Add chopped parsley:
Prune and Walnut Stuffed Chicken Skin Recipe: Step 7
Mix and add an egg:
Prune and Walnut Stuffed Chicken Skin Recipe: Step 8
And mix stuffing again:
Prune and Walnut Stuffed Chicken Skin Recipe: Step 9
Using a spoon, carefully stuff chicken skin you prepared earlier with the mixed meat stuffing:
Prune and Walnut Stuffed Chicken Skin Recipe: Step 10
Pin thigh, neck and bottom openings on chicken skin together with sharp wooden toothpicks:
Prune and Walnut Stuffed Chicken Skin Recipe: Step 11
Warm up oven to 355F. Move stuffed chicken skin to a baking pan smeared with a bit of oil:
Prune and Walnut Stuffed Chicken Skin Recipe: Step 12
Brush stuffed chicken skin with tkemali sauce (or if you don’t have it, you can use honey and melted butter):
Prune and Walnut Stuffed Chicken Skin Recipe: Step 13
Sprinkle chicken skin with a bit of oil on top:
Prune and Walnut Stuffed Chicken Skin Recipe: Step 14
Put baking pan to the oven warmed up to 355F for 45-60mins, once cooked through (check with thermometer), remove stuffed chicken skin from the oven:
Prune and Walnut Stuffed Chicken Skin Recipe: Step 15
Slice into portion pieces and serve:
Prune and Walnut Stuffed Chicken Skin