Recipe of the Month: Chicken with White Bean and Sausage Stuffing & Leftover Chicken Soup

Yields 6+ servings/Time 2 hours

There’s nothing quite like a roast whole bird. With this recipe, you can enjoy a roast chicken with sausage and white bean stuffing one evening, and transform it into a comforting soup for your next meal. First, you’ll brown the sausage in a pan before adding vegetables, garlic, white wine vinegar, and beans. Loosely pack the sausage into a room temperature, salted whole bird. After roasting for just over an hour, carve and enjoy. The following meal is as easy as combining all the leftovers in stock and bringing it to a simmer.

You will need:

For the roast chicken

1 whole chicken

1 pound sweet Italian sausage

1 white onion, diced small

5 cloves garlic, sliced thin

4 stalks celery,  diced small

4 carrots, diced small

2 pounds organic cannellini beans

4 Tablespoons white wine vinegar

1 quart white wine

6 to 8 thyme sprigs and, 2 rosemary sprigs tied in a bundle

1 head of garlic, cut in half

Kosher Salt

For the leftover soup

Leftover chicken

Leftover white bean and sage sausage stuffing

Reserved cooking liquid

1 chicken carcass 

1  32 oz chicken stock

Kosher salt

Black pepper

To roast the chicken

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Salt chicken all over, set aside at room temperature. Dice vegetables, reserving any scraps 

• Over medium heat, brown sausage in a large saute pan, breaking it up as it cooks. Add diced vegetables, cook 3 to 4 minutes, until onions are translucent. Add sliced garlic, cook 2 to-3 minutes. Add beans, stir until well coated with fat from sausage. Add white wine vinegar and let cook out, about 3 minutes

• Adjust seasoning with salt, and set aside

• Fill the cavity of the chicken with the bean mixture, loosely packing with the back of a spoon save any leftovers 

• Place the chicken, breast side up in a shallow roasting pan. Add white wine to the pan. The amount you’ll need depends on the size of your pan;, it should be about 1 inch deep. Add veggie scraps, halved head of garlic, and herb bundle to the pan 

• Roast in the oven for 1 hour to 1 hour 15 minutes, or until a thermometer reads 165 degrees.

• Remove the chicken from the oven and let rest in the roasting pan for about 20 minutes.

• Carve the bird, serve with the stuffing from the cavity, and small drizzle of roasting liquid.

• Strain the liquid from the roasting pan into a container, discard the solids and save the liquid for soup. Save the carcass for soup

Make the soup

• Pull the chicken meat off of the bones and carcass, and shred any boneless meat with hands

• Place shredded chicken, leftover stuffing, and reserved cooking liquid in a soup pot 

• Add chicken stock and bring to a simmer. Adjust seasoning with salt and pepper