Amich: Armenian Stuffed Chicken
Ingredients
1 serving
- For the stuffing
- Rice 0.5 cup (90 g)
- Water for boiling the rice plenty
- Almonds (raw) 100 g
- Dried apricots 50 g
- Seedless raisins 50 g
- Butter 50 g (some of it for brushing the chicken)
- Basil 2-3 sprigs
- Ground cinnamon 0.5 tsp
- Cloves, allspice if you like
- For the chicken
- Young chicken 1
- Salt, hot pepper, ground black pepper to taste
- Water for the dish 0.5 cup (100 ml)
- For serving
- Basil, lemon for serving
Step-by-step recipe
Stuffing
For amich it is best to use small chickens or young chickens, which makes the dish tastier and more tender. It is best to use long-grain, fluffy rice, such as parboiled or basmati.
Prepare the chicken and almonds. Wash the bird and remove any remaining feathers and the innards. If you see pieces of chicken fat inside, you can leave them. Pour boiling water over the almonds for 10 mins, then drain, cool them and peel off the dark orange skin.
Boil the rice in plenty of water, stopping before it is fully cooked, about 8 mins after it comes to a boil. You should still feel a slight firmness inside each grain. Italians call this degree of doneness al dente. Drain the rice and transfer it to a deep bowl.
Fry the almonds with the dried fruit. Melt the butter in a small saucepan. It should be real butter, not a spread. Mix the peeled almonds, raisins and diced dried apricots and fry them together in the butter over medium heat, stirring, for 5-6 mins.
By the way, other dried and candied fruits are sometimes, though rarely, added to the stuffing: dates, cranberries, cornelian cherries.
Mix the stuffing. Add the fried dried fruit and almonds to the rice. Keep back a little of the butter the dried fruit was fried in, because you will brush the stuffed chicken with it before roasting. Add finely chopped fresh basil (dried basil is acceptable too) and, if you like, a few cloves and allspice berries. Add 0.5 tsp of ground cinnamon and mix the stuffing. Salt and pepper are not added to the stuffing, since amich is usually made without them and it is the bird itself that gets salted and peppered.
Stuffing and roasting
Stuff the bird. Sew up the neck opening with cotton thread or pin the skin in place with a wooden toothpick. Pack the bird tightly with the rice, almond and dried fruit stuffing through the cut in the belly. Sew or pin the skin at that opening in the same way. Tie the legs together with thread or a toothpick.
Rub the bird with spices and butter. Mix a little salt and hot pepper, add ground black pepper if you like, and rub the bird with the spice mixture. Then brush it with the butter left over from frying the dried fruit. The amich is ready to roast.
Roast the chicken. Preheat the oven to 180-190°C. Put the stuffed chicken in a baking dish with sides, pour in half a cup of water (100 ml) and put it in the oven uncovered. The roasting time is usually from 45 mins to 1 h, and in that time the stuffed chicken is fully cooked. Baste the chicken every 15 mins with the liquid that collects in the dish. You can tell it is done by the browning: the skin turns golden, and the juice runs clear when you pierce the thickest part of the thigh.
Serving
Spread the stuffing on a platter and set the chicken on top. Take the finished amich out of the oven and remove all the threads or toothpicks. Open the belly and scoop out all the rice, almond and dried fruit stuffing with a spoon. Spread the stuffing on a large plate or platter and put the chicken on top. Garnish with a lemon wedge and sprinkle with fresh basil.
Serve the chicken right away, while it is hot. Amich is a very fragrant and tasty dish. If you noticed, it is cooked with almost no salt.
Calories and macros
3950 kcal
Serving ≈ 1180 g
- Protein240 g25% of kcal
- Fat261 g60% of kcal
- Carbs146 g15% of kcal
100 g336 kcalProtein 20.4 gFat 22.2 gCarbs 12.4 g
Calculated from the recipe ingredients, excluding salt and spices. Data: USDA and Matvaretabellen.