When we mention black pudding to our customers we get one of three reactions,
Delight (this is the reaction of most men), wincing (this reaction from alot of non Europeans visiting Ireland for the first time) or giddy glee (the reaction of many Germen men visiting Ireland for the first time, they love all sausage it would seem).
In Byrne's we love black pudding, it's served in all of the breakfasts every morning but we have always used it in other meals too - in salads for lunch or as part of a meaty dinner dish.
Ireland is full of great puddings we get ours from Tournafulla. Tournafulla has three pubs, a church, a w
ind farm, traditional music, delicious black pudding and is apparently the longest village in Ireland.It's in the bottom left corner of Limerick bordering Kerry and Cork.
http://homepage.eircom.net/~asduchasdochas/gatewaywest/tournafulla/intro.htm
So below is our recipe for Chicken stuffed with black pudding served with colcannon. Its very easy and from chopping the first onion to taking the first bite it should only take an hour;
To feed four.
100g of black pudding,
4 chicken supreme (always kept with the skin and bone on, they taste much better that way),
50g of bread crumbs,50g of Onion,
25g of butter,
2 tablespoons of Worcestershire sauce (yes that stuff on the right which you should also be putting in your Bloody Marys, more of that later)
and one egg.
Start by boiling some peeled potatoes in salted water until they start to break up, which is usually after about 20 minutes.
While they are cooking you can prepare the stuffing.
Melt butter in a frying pan, add the onions and cook until soft. Crumble in the black pudding and cook slowly for 5-10 minutes. Remove from the heat and add all the breadcrumbs, the egg and the Worcestershire sauce. Then season it and set aside to cool.
At this stage you can start to heat your oven, 200 C, 400 F, Gas mark 6.
Now, the tricky part, loosen the skin one side of the chicken and insert the about 25g of the stuffing making sure that it is spread evenly on top of the chicken. Then seal the chicken on the sides with some hot oil in a pan.
Place the chicken pieces, skin side down onto a buttered roasting tin and cook for about 25 minutes.
Now that your potatoes are cooked you can go ahead and make the colcannon.
Traditionally colcannon is made with kale, a thick, green and curly cabbage. However you can use any green cabbage or indeed leeks, or onions, even boiled bacon. We like to use spinach and spring onions both of which should be in season, unlike the kale which is up in the winter. Just steam the cabbage/spinach, no need to use butter there should already be some in the mash, and add in 1-2cm chunks of the spring onion.
To make the colcannon just make mashed potato with your onion/cabbage of choice mixed in at the end. Below is some lovely wilted spinach.
Serve the chicken on top of the hot creamy colcannon. Because the black pudding and colcannon provide lots of moisture you may not need a sauce but if you wanted one we would recommend a creamy mushroom or an onion and brandy sauce (we'll give the recipe for these another day).
