Roasted Chicken with Paleo Cranberry Orange Sausage Stuffing

In my quest for a Paleo  T-Day I stumbled upon Boulder Sausages Cranberry Orange Breakfast sausage and I thought to myself, I bet that would be great in stuffing!!!! This stuffing is all paleo and is just enough sweet.  The stuffing was enough to fill the chicken and fill the outside of the 13X9 baking dish and probably would be enough just to fill the inside of a turkey. You could also use the regular breakfast sausage as well.

You need:

1 small whole Chicken

1 tbps olive oil

1/2 lb Cranberry Orange Breakfast Sausage

1 large onion, minced

1 cup Celery, chopped

2 cloves garlic

1 Medium golden Delicious apple, chopped.

1 cup chopped cauliflower

1 cup Cranberries, fresh

1.5 cups orange juice

1 tbsp fresh sage chopped

1 sprig thyme

1 tbsp Chef’s shake seasoning

salt to taste

 

Preheat oven to 350.

Wash chicken and pat dry with a paper towel. Place in a 13X9 glass baking dish.

In a large skillet, heat the olive oil and cook the sausage breaking it up into small bits.

In the meantime, cook cranberries and 1/2 cup orange juice in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil, let the cranberries cook and become sweeter with the OJ. When the cranberries have become soft, drain the cranberry orange water and save for marinating and basting the chicken. Save cranberries for stuffing.

In  a small bowl, mix the cranberry orange juice, 1/2 cup orange juice, sage ,thyme, and chef’s shake.

When the sausage has cooked add in the onion, celery, and garlic. Sauté until onions are translucent. Add in the apples  and cauliflower to the pan and coat them about 1 minute. Transfer into a large bowl and add in cranberries. 

Add last 1/2 cup of OJ to the pan to scrape up the browned bits and add to the stuffing. Fold everything gently together.

Pour the marinade over the chicken and under the skin. Shake extra seasoning over the chicken it you wish. Stuff the chicken with the stuffing and pour the rest outside the chicken or place in a separate baking dish if you don’t want it mixed up with the chicken juices.

Bake for 1. 5 hours or until the chicken reached 180 degrees F. You may wish to place a piece of foil on the chicken after an hour to keep the moisture in.

I ate mine with Panetta, apple spinach salad. Yum!