Mexican Christmas Stuffed Chicken with Chorizo Stuffing

A 5¼ lb (2.4 kg) chicken is the right size for a Christmas dinner of six: it roasts in about 2¼ to 2½ hours at 350°F (180°C), and if it’s frozen it only needs a day and a half in the fridge, not the three days a 12 lb turkey takes. In Mexico, pollo relleno navideño (poh-yoh reh-YEH-noh nah-vee-DEH-nyoh, Christmas stuffed chicken) is what many families roast when a whole turkey is too much for the table. This one is rubbed with ancho chile butter and stuffed with crusty bolillo rolls, fresh Mexican chorizo, Granny Smith apple and almonds. Below you’ll find how big a bird to buy, roasting times by weight, what to do the day before and how to tell the stuffing is safe.

What you’re making, and how long it takes

How do you make Mexican Christmas stuffed chicken? Salt a 5¼ lb (2.4 kg) chicken the day before and spread ancho chile and garlic butter under the skin. On the day, brown 9 oz (250 g) of Mexican chorizo with onion, celery, apple and almonds, fold it with 5 cups of dried bread cubes and hot stock, stuff the bird loosely and roast at 350°F (180°C) until the breast, thigh and center of the stuffing all read 165°F (74°C), about 2¼ to 2½ hours. Rest 20 minutes and carve. 200 minutes for 6 servings.

The skin roasts deep red-brown from the ancho, which is a dried poblano pepper: sweet, earthy, barely hot. The chorizo brings a gentle heat and a lot of paprika-red fat that soaks into the bread. Inside the bird the stuffing stays soft and juicy; in the dish it crisps on top. Both get eaten.

Time. About 40 minutes of hands-on work on the day (30 for the stuffing, 10 to butter, stuff and tie), 2¼ to 2½ hours in the oven and a 20-minute rest. The day before, 15 minutes to salt the bird, cube the bread and make the butter.

Difficulty, medium. Nothing here is hard. What goes wrong is pulling the bird on time instead of temperature, or packing the cavity so tightly the stuffing lags far behind the meat.

Chicken or turkey for a small Christmas

For 4 to 8 people, a chicken makes more sense than a turkey: you’re not buying 12 lb of bird for six, there’s no long thaw, and the oven frees up sooner for sides. The pricey parts here are the chorizo and almonds; pecans or half the nuts bring it down. For 10 or more, the Latin Christmas turkey with picadillo stuffing feeds the crowd in one roast. For an everyday bird with no stuffing, the Latin roast chicken with orange and cumin is done at 400°F (200°C) in about 85 minutes.

How big a chicken to buy

Plan on about 14 oz (400 g) of whole raw chicken per person (bones included) when there’s stuffing plus two sides. A 5¼ lb (2.4 kg) bird serves 6, or 5 if you want leftovers.

In the US, look for a roaster (5 to 7 lb); broiler-fryers usually top out around 4 lb. In the UK, ask the butcher for a large chicken of about 2.4 kg.

Ingredients and swaps

Exact amounts are in the recipe card. What matters about each:

• Salt the day before, 12 g. That’s about 5 g per kg (roughly ¾ tsp fine salt per lb). It seasons the meat all the way through and helps it hold juice.
• Ancho chile powder. Pure ground ancho, sold in the spice aisle as ancho chile powder. Don’t use generic “chili powder”, which is a blend with cumin and salt. In the UK, if you can’t find ancho, use 2 tsp sweet smoked paprika: the color is right, the dried-fruit flavor isn’t.
• Stock in the pan. It keeps the drippings from burning and gives you the juices that baste the dish of stuffing.

The chorizo, bolillo and apple stuffing

This is a bread stuffing. Browned chorizo and its fat give flavor and color, celery and tart apple keep it fresh, almonds add crunch, and dry bread soaks up the stock and the chicken juices. It makes about 6 cups; a 5¼ lb bird takes about 2½ cups loosely, and the rest bakes in a dish.

• Mexican chorizo is raw, soft and red with chile and vinegar, sold in casings or loose, in most US supermarkets near the other sausages or in the Latin section. It is not the hard, cured Spanish kind you slice. In the UK, use fresh Spanish cooking chorizo, squeezed out of its casing: it tastes more of paprika and less of chile and vinegar. Soy chorizo works too; it renders less fat, so add 1 tbsp butter with the onion.
• Bolillo is the crusty Mexican white roll, sold in Latin bakeries and many US supermarkets. A day-old baguette, ciabatta or any crusty white loaf does the same job. Sandwich bread turns soft and dense. Whatever you use, it has to be dry, or it goes to paste in the stock.
• Granny Smith apple holds its shape in the oven and its sharpness balances the chorizo. A sweet red apple goes softer and sweeter.
• Nuts. Leave them out for a nut allergy; you lose the crunch, nothing else.
• Raisins (optional). 50 g (⅓ cup) if you like the sweet note common in Mexican Christmas stuffings.

Equipment

A roasting pan about 12 x 16 in (30 x 40 cm), an 8 x 8 in (20 x 20 cm) baking dish, foil, toothpicks or kitchen twine and an instant-read thermometer. With a stuffed bird the thermometer is not optional: the center of the stuffing is the last thing to reach a safe temperature, and you can’t see it.

Make-ahead plan for Christmas Eve

For dinner at 9 pm:

• Two days before, if frozen. Move the chicken from freezer to fridge in its wrapping, on a plate. A 5¼ lb bird needs about a day and a half. If you’re late, thaw it in its sealed bag in cold water, changing the water every 30 minutes, about 2½ hours, and cook it that day.
• Dec 23. Salt the chicken and leave it uncovered in the fridge. Cube and dry the bread. Make the butter. Chop the onion, celery and garlic and refrigerate them covered. You can also cook the chorizo and vegetables and chill them, but don’t combine them with the bread and stock until you’re ready to stuff.
• Dec 24, 5:00 pm. Butter out of the fridge. At 5:15, heat the oven and make the stuffing; if the chorizo mix was made ahead, reheat it in the skillet until steaming first.
• 5:45 pm. Butter, stuff, tie, into the oven.
• 6:45 to 7:00 pm. Baste and tent the breast if it’s golden.
• 7:25 pm. Stuffing dish goes in.
• 7:45 pm. First temperature check.
• 8:00 to 8:15 pm. Chicken out, 20-minute rest.
• 8:35 to 9:00 pm. Stuffing out, carve, serve.

Roasting time by weight

At 350°F (180°C) in a preheated oven, count on about 25 to 27 minutes per pound (55 to 60 minutes per kg) for a stuffed chicken. Use that to plan; the thermometer decides when it’s done.

Start checking 15 minutes before the low end. In a fan oven, use 325°F (160°C) and check earlier.

Where to take the temperature

1. Thickest part of the breast, going in from the neck end.
2. Inner thigh, where it meets the body, without touching bone (bone reads high).
3. Center of the stuffing, through the cavity opening.

All three need 165°F (74°C). The thigh usually gets there first and is more tender at 175 to 185°F (80 to 85°C). If the meat is done and the stuffing isn’t, leave the bird in with the breast tented until it is: the stuffing has soaked up raw chicken juices and needs the same 165°F (74°C).

Without a thermometer, clear juices between thigh and body and a leg that wiggles loosely tell you about the meat, not the stuffing.

Keeping the bird from drying out

• Going by the clock. Two chickens of the same weight don’t cook at the same speed. Check from 2 hours and pull it at 165°F (74°C) in the breast.
• Packed stuffing. It takes much longer to heat through, and the breast overcooks while you wait. Spoon it in loosely, about 2½ cups, and bake the rest separately.
• Cold stuffing. Straight from the fridge it also lags. Stuff with it hot and freshly mixed.
• An uncovered breast all the way. It browns in the first hour, then dries. Tent it as soon as it has color.
• No salt ahead. The butter seasons the skin; unsalted meat tastes flat and loses more juice.
• Carving straight away. In a 20-minute rest the juices settle; cut immediately and they end up on the board.
• Dry-looking stuffing in the dish. Spoon over 3 or 4 more tbsp of pan juices.

Ways to change it

• Stuffing baked outside the bird. Bake all of it in the dish and put the ½ onion and a few thyme sprigs in the cavity. The chicken takes 15 to 30 minutes less and you only have to check the meat. Bake the stuffing covered for 25 minutes, then uncovered 15, until the center reads 165°F (74°C).
• Gluten-free. Use the same weight of dried gluten-free bread and check the labels on the chorizo and stock.
• Sweeter. Add 50 g (⅓ cup) raisins and 50 g (⅓ cup) chopped prunes with the apple.
• For 12. Two 5¼ lb birds with a double batch, each in its own pan. If they’re on two racks, swap them halfway and allow 10 to 15 minutes more; check each bird separately.
• A smaller 3½ to 4 lb bird. Same stuffing batch (the cavity takes about 1½ cups) and 8 g salt the day before. About 1½ to 1¾ hours.

What to serve with it

The bird brings its own bread stuffing, so one cold side and one creamy side round out the table:

• Mexican Christmas apple salad with cream, cold and sweet against the chorizo.
• Mexican white spaghetti with cream cheese or Latin-style mashed potatoes, the creamy sides of a Mexican Christmas Eve.
• Or Mexican Christmas rice with pecans and raisins, though with a bread stuffing you don’t need both.
• To drink, hot Mexican Christmas fruit punch.

For a quick sauce, pour the pan juices into a jug, let them settle 5 minutes, spoon off the fat and reheat.

Leftovers, fridge and freezer

• Within 2 hours of coming out of the oven, take all the stuffing out of the bird and store meat and stuffing separately in covered containers. A chicken with stuffing inside cools too slowly.
• Fridge. Chicken and stuffing, 3 to 4 days.
• Freezer. Carved, boneless chicken up to 4 months; stuffing 1 month. Thaw in the fridge overnight.
• Reheating. Chicken covered in a dish with 2 or 3 tbsp stock at 325°F (160°C) for 15 to 20 minutes; stuffing covered with a splash of stock. Both until steaming and 165°F (74°C).
• Using it up. Shred the meat for tortas, tacos or a cold salad, and simmer the carcass with onion and a few vegetables into a Mexican chicken soup broth for Christmas Day.

Questions people ask

Can I stuff the chicken the night before? No. Moist stuffing inside a raw bird sits for hours at temperatures where bacteria grow, and it takes longer to heat through in the oven. The night before you can dry the bread and cook the chorizo mix, kept apart in the fridge; combine and stuff right before roasting.

What if the skin browns too fast? Butter and ancho darken faster than plain skin. Tent the breast and drumstick tips with loose foil as soon as they’re golden and keep roasting.

Can I bake the stuffing in the dish without pan juices? Yes. Pour over ¼ cup (60 ml) of stock mixed with 1 tbsp melted butter. A little less savory, just as moist.

Nutrition

Per serving (one sixth of the 5¼ lb bird with skin and one sixth of the stuffing), worked out ingredient by ingredient from the quantities above:

• Calories: 905 kcal
• Protein: 57 g
• Carbohydrates: 30 g
• Fat: 61 g, of which 20 g saturated
• Fiber: 4 g
• Sugars: 5 g
• Sodium: 1720 mg

The chicken with its skin accounts for more than half the calories, and the skin alone for about a third; the figure counts all of it, although some of the fat stays in the pan. Skip the skin and a serving drops to about 590 kcal and 30 g fat. Most of the sodium comes from the overnight salt, the chorizo and the stock, so low-sodium stock helps.

There aren’t many of us at home, and a whole turkey always felt like too much oven and too many leftovers, so in December this is the bird I make most. I always make extra stuffing: the crunchy part from the dish is the first thing to disappear. Josnaisis.