About 13 years ago, we began having family Sunday dinners. At the time, Kelly was attending a boarding high school and was only home on weekends. (Andrew followed suit a few years later.) Sunday dinners together were an essential component of the limited family time we had with the kids. During cold weather, Kelly always requested a roasted chicken for her last home cooked meal before heading back to school. Just a few short years later, the kids headed to colleges far from home and family dinners happened only during school breaks. Time marched on. Eric & I moved from the Midwest back to New England. Kelly graduated from an Eastern college, then a New England law school, and married Gilbert. Andrew graduated from an Eastern college and moved back to the Midwest to live & work. We miss having Andrew close to home. But Kelly and Gilbert currently live very close and family Sunday dinners are part of our routine again, albeit without Andrew.

In the throes of winter, those dinners are once again roasted chicken. Looking for a new take on the chicken, Kelly suggested an Azerbaijani dish. Kelly became enamored with Eastern European foods when she spent a year of college living with a host family and studying in Moscow, Russia. One of her prized possessions from that time is, not surprisingly, a cookbook. The nation of Azerbaijan, a former Soviet republic, surrounded by the Caspian Sea and the Caucasus Mountains, is known for its walnut, onion, and sour plum stuffing for poultry & fish. It works well here, too.

Azerbaijani Chicken

Azerbaijani Chicken (adapted from Mamushka: Recipes from Ukraine and Eastern Europe by Olia Hercules)

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 (2-3 pound) whole chicken
• 1 tablespoon minced or ground lemongrass
• 4 ounces pitted prunes, finely chopped
• grated zest & juice of 1 lemon
• 8 ounces walnuts, toasted & lightly chopped
• 1 red onion, grated
• sea salt & freshly ground black pepper

Preheat the oven to 350º F. Mix the prunes with the lemon zest & juice, walnuts, and onion in a bowl. Season it with salt & pepper.

Combine the ingredients for the stuffing.

Rub the olive oil all over the chicken. Place it in a roasting pan and sprinkle it with the lemongrass, salt & pepper. Fill the cavity of the bird with the stuffing mixture.

Place the stuffing in the cavity of the bird.

Tie the legs of the chicken together with kitchen string to hold the stuffing in while the bird cooks.

Truss the chicken.

Any leftover nut mixture that does not fit in the cavity can be baked separately in a small ramekin beside the chicken for 30 minutes.

Leftover stuffing can be baked separately.

Roast the chicken until the juices run clear and the internal temperature (taken between the leg and the breast near the inner thigh, making sure not to hit the bone) has reached and internal temperature of 165º F, about 1 to 1 1/2 hours. Allow the chicken to rest for 10 minutes out of the oven before sectioning and serving it.

Cut the chicken into pieces after rests for 10 minutes.

We loved the nut-prune-onion stuffing combination!

Roast chicken & family on a Sunday afternoon is a beloved winter tradition!  ~Linda

Azerbaijani Chicken with Prunes & Walnuts (adapted from Mamushka: Recipes from Ukraine and Eastern Europe by Olia Hercules)

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 (2-3 pound) whole chicken
• 1 tablespoon minced or ground lemongrass
• 4 ounces pitted prunes, finely chopped
• grated zest & juice of 1 lemon
• 8 ounces walnuts, toasted & lightly chopped
• 1 red onion grated
• sea salt & freshly ground black pepper

Preheat the oven to 350º F. Mix the prunes with the lemon zest & juice, walnuts, and onion in a bowl. Season it with salt & pepper, then set it aside. Rub the olive oil all over the chicken. Place it in a roasting pan and sprinkle it with the lemongrass, salt & pepper. Fill the cavity of the chicken with the stuffing mixture. Tie the legs of the chicken together with kitchen string to hold the stuffing in while the bird cooks. Any leftover nut mixture that does not fit in the cavity can be baked separately in a small ramekin beside the chicken for 30 minutes.

Roast the chicken until the juices run clear and the internal temperature (taken between the leg and the breast near the inner thigh, making sure not to hit the bone) has reached and internal temperature of 165º F, about 1 to 1 1/2 hours. Allow the chicken to rest for 10 minutes out of the oven before sectioning and serving it.