Stuffed Roasted Rooster in a hull oven Greek style

A delicious holiday season recipe for Stuffed Roasted Rooster the Greek style! You can easily replace the rooster with chicken or turkey for this recipe. In Greece, we cook stuffed rooster or turkey for Christmas or New year’s day.

Stuffed Roasted Rooster in a hull oven

A hull oven is great for cooking this dish for 3 reasons: Its oval shape which helps with a uniform roasting, its lid which helps because you do not need to flip the rooster, and its huge capacity that can hold enough potatoes to feed all of your guests! Nevertheless, if you don’t own a hull don’t worry because you can cook this dish in a normal baking tray too.

In a normal baking tray cook for the same amount of time but you will need to flip the poultry after half the cooking time has passed and then flip again 10 minutes before it’s ready.

If you have a hull oven without a lid then you can cover the top with a few sheets of aluminum foil and cook according to the instructions of my recipe but you will need to flip it halfway.

Chicken liver and rice stuffing

Never has there ever been a person that ate this stuffing and not loved it! It is a great crowd pleaser everyone would enjoy and will be asking for more!

This recipe was created by one of my mother’s best friends, called Olga, at Ierapetra of Crete more than 30 years ago. My mother developed it over the years according to her likes, and when I started cooking it I enhanced it a little bit and finalized this recipe I’m now sharing with you.

The only downside is that it does not fit all inside the belly of a rooster and you can’t cook only half the portion because you can’t store the livers in the fridge for a long time. I would recommend do not store the livers in the fridge for more than 1 day.

The remaining stuffing that does not fit inside the belly of the rooster you can cook in a normal pot like you would have cooked any rice dish or even add it in a small hull or Pyrex baking tray with a lid and oven bake it. I will make a separate recipe article just for this stuffing and the variety of ways you can cook it at a later time.

The chicken livers can go bad very fast so for that reason I only buy frozen ones which I defrost in the fridge from the day before I plan to cook this recipe.

If the chicken livers you are using for this recipe are too big, don’t cut them when they are raw because they are very delicate and you might end up squashing them if you exert too much force. Cut them after you have sauté them as they will be less delicate then.

Stuffed Roasted Rooster in a hull oven Greek style

Prep: 30m | Cook: 2h | Total: 2h 30m | Serves: 4-6

Ingredients for the preparation of the rooster:

2.5 kg rooster (approximately)
3 kg potatoes baby or regular type cut in wedges
Cooking string, to tie the rooster’s legs
4 toothpicks to sew the rooster’s belly after we add the filling
50g butter (4 tbsp)
3 Tbsp olive oil
Salt / pepper to taste

Ingredients for the Marinate (Optional):

3.5 liters of water
5 oranges, their juice
2 lemons, their juice
3 Tbsp olive oil
1 wineglass of white wine
1 pinch of dried thyme
1 pinch of oregano
2 cloves of garlic, coarsely chopped
1 onion cut into slices
2 pinches of coarse salt
1 pinch of pepper
A few slices of lemons

Ingredients for the Rooster Dressing:

2 lemons, their juice
1 wineglass of white wine
3 Tbsp Olive oil
1 Tbsp Mustard
1 tsp Honey
1 pinch of oregano
1 pinch of thyme
3 cloves of garlic, coarsely chopped
A pinch of Salt and Pepper

Ingredients for the Rooster stuffing:

500g Chicken livers
1 onion, finely chopped
200g Rice, short grain (1 teacup)
350g Boiling Water or chicken stock (1.5 teacups)
1 handful of raisins
50g pine cones (1 handful)
1 wineglass of white wine (180g)
1 apple peeled and cut into small pieces
3 Spring Onions, cut into rolls
1 pinch of ground cinnamon
A pinch of Salt and Pepper

Instructions:

For the Marinate: Add the rooster and all the ingredients in a huge bowl or in the hull oven that you are going to roast the rooster.
Marinate inside your fridge for at least 8 hours up to 24 hours. (Note1)* The Marinate is an optional step but if you use it, it will tenderize the rooster/ chicken/ turkey and it will remain tender and juicy even on the next day.
Drain the marinate but keep about half a cup.
Prepare the stuffing: Heat up the white wine in your microwave and soak the raisins in the wine for 30 minutes.
Wash the chicken livers and pat them dry with kitchen paper as best as you can. (Note2*)
Wash the rice by changing 3 waters, drain it, add it to a bowl, and set it aside.
Wash the potatoes and set them aside.
Saute the chicken livers with the olive oil in a pot over high heat until they brown a little on all sides, about 5 minutes.
Add the onion to the pot and sauté it with the livers until it gets transparent.
Next, add the cinnamon, followed by the wine with the raisins, and keep sautéing them over high heat until the alcohol evaporates. (about 2 minutes).
Add the rice followed by the boiling water and mix to combine.
Let the rice cook over high heat until the water disappears (about 3 minutes) and turn off the heat.
Add the spring onions off the heat and mix to combine.
Add the stuffing to a bowl and set it aside until you are ready to stuff the rooster.
Prepare the dressing: Add the honey to a small bowl and heat it for 10 seconds in the microwave.
Add the mustard followed by all the other ingredients for the dressing and mix to combine.
Add the rooster with half a cup from the marinate juice in the hull or roasting tray (Use ½ cup of water if you didn’t marinate the rooster).
Add the stuffing into the belly of the rooster and when it’s almost full, add one potato and sew the belly with 4 or 5 toothpicks to prevent the rice from coming out.
Cross the rooster’s legs and tie them with a cooking string like in the video because it helps with a more uniform roasting.
Add the potatoes inside the hull oven surrounding the rooster.
Cut a small incision on the rooster chest, close to the neck, big enough to fit your fingers beneath its skin.
Pour a small part of the dressing and then shove 4 tbsp of butter in there like it is shown in the video.
Pour the rest of the dressing on top of the rooster and the potatoes.
Pour a little olive oil and a couple more Tbsp of butter over the rooster and the potatoes.
Bake at 180C /350F at the lower rack of your oven for 1h and 30minutes covered. Then remove the lid and bake for 30 more minutes uncovered. (Note3, 4)

Notes:

Note1: If you do not have time to marinate it for at least 8 hours it is best to skip the marinate and save your ingredients for another time. This recipe for marinating the rooster needs many hours to work its magic so you either go big or not at all.
Note2: The chicken livers tend to bust like fireworks if they have a lot of water in them so pat them dry well and be careful.
Note3: The baking time can be reduced or increased depending on the size of the rooster/chicken/turkey and the type of the hull or roasting tray.
Note4: If you don’t own a hull oven you can use a regular roasting tray but you will need to flip the rooster halfway.

Nutrition Facts Disclaimer

Did you make this recipe? Or are you planning to make it? Let me know in the comments below, tag me on Instagram @freshpiato or show me your photos on Pinterest!