Blue Cheese Roast Chicken With Apple Thyme Stuffing Recipe

• 2 Tbsp. unsalted butter, plus 1/2 c. (1 stick) unsalted butter at room temperature
• 3 x Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored and cut into 1/2 inch chunks
• 3 x shallots, coarsely minced
• 1 stalk celery, finely minced
• 1 Tbsp. chopped fresh thyme
• 1 x bay leaf
• 4 ounce blue cheese, crumbled
• 1 x roasting chicken, about 5 pounds
• 1 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
2. In a large skillet, heat 2 Tbsp.
3. butter over medium-low heat.
4. Add in apples, shallots, celery and thyme and saute/fry for 7 or possibly 8 min, or possibly till browned (this will intensify the flavor; try not to mash apples).
5. Transfer to a bowl and add in bay leaf.
6. In a small bowl, cream 1/2 c. butter and cheese together.
7. Loosen skin of chicken across breast, beginning at back of bird, by inserting a finger under the skin and running it back and forth, side to side, then forward.
8. Make a small cut in the skin at end of each leg and run a finger around the meat.
9. Take chunks of butter mix and insert under skin.
10. Knead mix forward by rubbing skin till there is a layer of the mix across breast and thigh meat (do not worry if it's a bit lumpy - it'll heat into the meat).
11. Whisk extra virgin olive oil with a little of remaining butter mix and rub it into outside skin across the breast and top of thigh.
12. Stuff bird with apple mix and tie legs together with cotton twine.
13. Put chicken on its side on a rack in a baking dish.
14. Roast, uncovered, for 20 min.
15. Turn, baste and roast 20 min more.
16. Turn chicken breast-side up, baste, and roast another 20 min.
17. Lower oven temperature to 375 degrees, baste and roast about 15 min more, or possibly till juices run clear when a thigh is pierced.
18. Turn oven off.
19. Remove chicken from oven and place, breast-side down, on a platter.
20. Cover loosely with aluminum foil and return to oven, leaving door partly open (to allow meat to rest and hard up, and juices to flow around it).
21. Let rest 15 min.
22. Carve chicken and serve.
23. Wine recommendation: chardonnay.

unsalted butter, apples, shallots, celery, thyme, bay leaf, blue cheese, roasting chicken, extra virgin olive oil

Taken from cookeatshare.com/recipes/blue-cheese-roast-chicken-with-apple-thyme-stuffing-87434 (may not work)