Chicken Stuffed with Figs and Goats Cheese

How exactly are you supposed to react when you are contacted by a goat?  That's Ethel the Goat from Capricorn Goats Cheese who invited me to join the #CarpricornChallenge - national search for goatally scrumptious recipes using ingredients from Somerset including Capricorn Goats Cheese.

Ethel sent me this amazing hamper full of lovely goodies, it was packed with jars and bottles, packets and fresh produce.

After looking at the ingredients, I had a bit of a think and decided to stuff some chicken legs with goat's cheese, figs, honey and thyme in a sort of, Somerset meets Scotland meets Greece, kind of way.

Chicken Legs stuffed with Figs, Goats Cheese and Honey

4 Chicken legs (thigh and drumstick)
1 100g drum of Capricorn Goats Cheese
4 figs, quartered
8 teaspoons of honey
2 tsp chopped fresh thyme leaves
salt and freshly ground black pepper

for the sauce
1 tbsp olive oil
chicken bones
1/4 pint water
1/2 tsp chopped thyme leaves
stock vegetables e.g. chopped celery, carrot, onion (I also used some coriander stems which I had frozen as per Melanie at Edible Things - a brilliant idea for saving veg bits for making stock later)
salt & freshly ground pepper

I've made a little YouTube Video to show you how to debone your chicken, it's really easy and creates a perfect pocket for all kinds of stuffings.

So once you have your chicken leg without the bones in it,   stuff it with chopped figs, goats cheese, thyme, salt and freshly ground pepper, more figs, more goats cheese and two teaspoons of honey.  Then close up and secure with cocktail sticks.

Now make the sauce,  heat the oil in a pan, add the bones and cook until the little bits of chicken left on them start to turn golden.  Add the vegetables and cook for two minutes, then add the water, thyme and seasoning.  Bring to the boil, then simmer for about 20 minutes.

Heat a tablespoon of olive oil in a pan and brown the stuffed chicken legs. Remove the chicken legs to an ovenproof dish and deglaze the pan with 1/4 pint of cider, I used Burrow Hill Farm Pressed, Somerset Cider  Add this to the stock/sauce and pour around the chicken legs.

 Bake in the oven for 15 - 20 minutes until the juices of the chicken, when pierced with a skewer, run clear.  Remove the skewers from the chicken legs and once on the plate, strain the sauce through a sieve to remove any bits.

Serve the stuffed chicken legs with the sauce.  I also served roasted vegetables, including red onion, red peppers, butternut squash and halved tomatoes. 

Now I'm not normally a huge fan of goats cheese but the Carpricorn Goats Cheese was mild and creamy and delicious and complemented the other stuffing flavours and the chicken very well.  The sauce was particularly good and some of the cheese had leaked out into it  and went well with the tang of the Burrow Hill cider.

Disclaimer: This is a sponsored post. I was not required to write a positive review and any opinion expressed is my own.