Stuffed pumpkin spice chicken with roasted acorn squash
Delicious Sunday dinner that's adaptable into an easy weeknight meal
It’s September, there’s a chill in the air and I felt inspired to make something with pumpkin spice. I also had a whole chicken in the freezer that I deboned a few weeks ago. So I got creative and developed this stuffed pumpkin spice chicken recipe that is as cute as a pumpkin!
If you don’t have time to debone a whole chicken, that’s OK — you can make this an easier weeknight meal by marinating whatever cut of chicken you have with the pumpkin spice blend (see below) and serving it with some mashed potatoes.
I bet you won’t but if you do have leftovers, it’ll make a lovely chicken salad sandwich packed with delicious fall flavours.
Urge to elevate? Serve it with my pumpkin buerre blanc and/or garnish with toasted pumpkin seeds1 or crispy kale2.
Makes 4 servings
Ingredients:
Stuffed Chicken
1 whole chicken, deboned
2 tbsp grapeseed oil
1/2 cup chicken stock
6 garlic cloves, peeled
2 sprigs of sage
4 1/4 tsp pumpkin spice blend
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp salt
Pinch of smoked paprika
Pumpkin stuffing
1 white onion, finely chopped
3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 tbsp ginger, minced
1 tsp pumpkin spice blend
1/4 cup white wine
1/2 cup pumpkin purée
1 tbsp maple syrup
1/3 cup walnuts, roughly chopped
2 tbsp fresh sage, finely chopped
2 tbsp fresh parsley, finely chopped
Acorn squash
1 medium acorn squash, cut in half
1/2 tablespoon olive oil
Pinch of salt
Preparation:
Stuffed chicken
Combine spices to make pumpkin spice blend. Set aside 1 teaspoon for the pumpkin stuffing.
Cover chicken with spice blend.
Sautée onion on medium heat until soft and translucent, 3-5 minutes. Add garlic and cook for another minute. Add ginger and cook for another minute.
Add remaining pumpkin spice and cook for another minute then deglaze the pan with wine.
Add maple syrup and pumpkin purée and cook until the colour deepens, about 3 minutes.
Add walnuts and cook for about 1 minute. Add herbs and adjust seasoning to taste.
Tie with butcher’s twine and refrigerate for 1 hour.
Preheat oven to 400°F. Heat grapeseed oil in a heavy, oven-proof skillet and sear chicken until golden on all sides. Add garlic, chicken stock and sage to the skillet.
Place in pre-heated oven and roast until internal temperature reaches 160°F, about 45 minutes. Remove chicken and let rest for 10-15 minutes before slicing.
Acorn squash
Season squash halves with olive oil and salt. Place cut side down in baking dish.
In the last 30 minutes of cooking the chicken, add squash to hot oven and cook for 30-40 minutes, depending on the size of the squash. It’s done when it’s fork tender.
Make toasted pumpkin seeds by frying in a dry pan until golden brown
Make crispy kale by mixing chopped kale with olive oil, salt and pepper and baked until crispy at 450°F for about 10 minutes