Ballotine Puns

I have made 2 chicken and 1 turkey ballotine over the last few months and all have turned out delicious. I have once consistent problem though, which is that when I roll the bird a small amount of skin gets trapped inside. In the finished product this leads to a bit of rubbery and not fully rendered skin inside.

Does anyone have any techniques/tips on how to avoid this?

Thanks a ton!!!

Serve smoked turkey leg at a BBQ place, and for anybody who doesn’t know, smoking meat tends to leave an outer ring of pink/red when you cut it open. And when you make smoked bacon and wrap a stuffed chicken thigh with said bacon, the smokey red-ness transfers to the chicken.

A big clue that the meat is cooked is that the inside isn’t pink, and it’s been slow cooked for hours, is piping hot and the juices are clear.

But every week, if not every day, somebody orders one or the other, sees an outer patch of pink and thinks we’re trying to poison them. A customer asked if we could “stick it in the microwave for a few minutes”, I refused and they insisted so I complied, when they got their nuked chicken, the outside was still pink, so they accepted that it was the smoke and then complained that it tasted overcooked.

I recently tried my hands at cooking Jacque Pepin’s Chicken Ballotine and followed the recipe exactly except I upped the amount of salt and pepper as I though 1/4 teaspoon was too little and dry brined the debonned chicken with salt overnight, putting it in my fridge. I used his spinach, bread, and cheese filling.

I put it in my oven safe meat thermometer at the side of the ballotine, making sure it was in in the centre, put it into 400 F oven for 55 minutes until the stuffing was 162 F (I figured the residual heat would heat the stuffing to 165 F). I let it cool for 15 minutes before cutting it and tasting it. It tasted great but the skin was not as crispy as I had hoped and the breast meat portion of the ballotine seemed dry and overcooked.

Is there a way that I could cook this properly without overcooking the breast meat? Additionally, what are some ways to make the skin more cripsy?

i just saw the video, and really like the idea. but he used spinach and a purree of mushrooms as a filling but

a) didn't show how to do the filling

b) spinach is not avaiable this time of the year.

i am afraid that frozen spinach will add too much moisture into the chicken. and i don't know if he sautéed the mushrooms before purreeing to remove moisture aswell.

so what are my alternatives for the filling? if possible i would like to stick to vegetarian stuff. even more meat inside the meat seems overkill.

also: is one chicken + potatoes + salad enough for 5 persons?