Medieval stuffed chicken. Latin (French) recipe from the beginning of the fourteenth century.
(printout version recipe September/October 2009 (2 pages A4))
© Christianne Muusers
For 4 to 6 persons.

List of ingredients:
1 beautiful chicken (or 2 or 3 small spring chickens)
Rub (the mixture of spices to rub the chicken with):
50 gram (1/4 cup or 3 Tbsp) butter or lard
1 tsp each of salt, white pepper, black pepper, long pepper, ginger and cinnamon, all ground (2 Tbsp in all)
Stuffing:
250 gram (1/2 pound) lean chopped pork
75 gram (2.5 ounce) chicken livers + and milk to steep them in
75 gram (2.5 ounce) bacon, chopped finely
3 hard boiled egg yolks, chopped finely
1/2 tsp each of salt, white pepper, black pepper, long pepper, ginger and cinnamon, all ground (1 Tbsp in all)
2 Tbsp each of hyssop, parsley and sage, without stalks
Mop (the liquid to baste the chicken with during roasting):
1 decilter (3/8 cup) chicken stock
50 gram (1/4 cup or 3 Tbsp) butter or lard
1 tsp of the rub spices

Preparation in advance:
The evening before Combine the spices. You won't find any ready ground long pepper, even finding it whole might be a problem. But if you have it, grind the pepper in a clean coffee mill. If you can't find long pepper, simply use a little more white and black pepper.
Melt butter or lard in a small pan, add the spices, but keep one teaspoon of the spices apart for use in the mop. Heat for 30 seconds, then take the pan off the fire and remove the spices and fat from it. Let cool enough that you can handle it with your fingers.
Meanwhile, prepare the chicken: insert your (clean) fingers at the neck between skin and flesh to separate them. Wriggle and move your fingers carefully, moving further and further beneath the skin, until you have reached the thighs and worked the skin loose there also. This has to be done with patience and subtlety, because if you go to fast ot forceful, the skin will tear. You can wear thin latex or rubber gloves for this, or be sure to clean your hands and nails very thoroughly afterwards.
Rub the butter or lard with spices on the chicken, between skin and flesh, and inside the chicken. Put the fowl in a plastic bag and keep overnight in the refrigerator.
An hour in advance Steep chicken livers in cold milk for fifteen minutes, rinse them, pat them dry and clean them (remove any bloodvessels and the white tissue). Chop them finely.
Put the leaves of hyssop, parsley and sage in a sieve and pour boiling water over them to let them shrink and lose their moisture. Pat dry with paper towels and chop finely.
Combine all ingredients (ground meat, bacon, livers, herbs, spices, egg yolks) for the stuffing, mix well.
Remove the chicken from the plastic bag. Divide the stuffing under the skin, in an even layer, around breast and thighs. What you have left, you put inside the chicken. Let the chicken rest for half an hour outside the refrigerator. Of course you have washed your hands thoroughly before and after handling the chicken.
If you want a smokey flavor to your chicken, steep some wood chips in water for half abn hour.
Combine ingredients for the mop in a small pan and keep warm (or reheat every time you want to baste the chicken)

Preparation:
On the barbecue/smoker Light the barbecue or smoker while the chicken is resting. Use charcoal or briquettes. If you don't have a smoker or a charcoal grill with vented cover, prepare the chicken in the oven. I have experience with a ten year old Weber One Touch Gold, so I'll describe the preparation for that grill. I trust you know your own grill or smoker well enough to be able to 'translate' the recipe. You'll have to roast using the indirect method: the charcoals or briquettes are burning on the sides of the grate, in the middle is an aluminium tray with water to catch drippings. Regulate the venting holes in the cover and below so that the temperature will be remain between 95 to 105 dgC (200 to 220 dgF). On my grill this means that the venting wholes are almost completely closed. Arrange the chicken or chickens on the the grill, breastside down, above the tray with water. Ensure that the temperature remains around 100 dgC/210 dgF. After 45 minutes, lift the cover to check whether you need to add extra fuel and wet wood chunks for smoke, and baste the chicken(s) with the heated mop. After another 45 minutes, turn the chicken on its back, baste again, check the fuel again and add wood chunks if you want to. Again 45 minutes later, check the internal temperature by inserting a meat thermometer between breast and tigh, taking care not to measure near the bone. If the inner temperature is around 90 dgC/195 dgF, the chicken is done. If not, leave it for another half hour.
In the oven Heat the oven to 120 to 150 dgC (250 to 300 dgF), put the chicken on a baking tray or roasting spit in the oven, with a tray with some water on the bottom. Baste regularly with the heated mop. Use a meat thermometer to know when the chicken is done (90 minutes to 2.5 hour).

To serve:
When the chicken is done, take it from the fire or out of the oven, and let it rest for at least five minutes. Cover with crinkled kitchen foil, shiny side inwards. Then carve it: cut off wings and thighs, arrange on the left and right side of a serving dish. Cut the white breast meat off the carcass, slice it. Remove the stuffing from the cavity. Place the carcass in the center oif the serving dish between the wings and thighs, arrange the breastmeat against it and the stuffing around it. Despite Wynkyn de Worde's instructions (see below), I leave the black skin on, the eater can remove it him- or herself.
The Latin recipe already indicates that a sauce is superfluous with this tasty chicken. A smal bowl of verjuice or white wine vinegar is enough. Modern cuisine would garnish with lemon slices.
The whites of the boiled eggs can be used as garnish, chopped finely.