Pollo con olive, cipolla e rosmarino ripieno Poussin stuffed with olives, onion, and rosemary

Serves 4
4 onions, thinly sliced
3½oz (100g) black olives, pitted and
coarsely chopped
5 fresh rosemary sprigs, chopped
4 garlic cloves, halved and any green inner
shoot discarded
2 small dried red chilies, crushed
2 tbsp olive oil plus a little extra
juice of 1 lemon
4 poussins or baby chickens, about
1lb 2oz (500g) each
salt and freshly ground black pepper
1Preheat the oven 400°F (200°C). In a bowl, combine the onions, olives,
and rosemary. Finely chop the garlic with the dried chilies. Add to the onion
mixture with the 2 tbsp olive oil and the lemon juice. Mix well and season with
salt and pepper. Stuff each chicken with a generous amount of the stuffing.
2Heat a little oil in a heavy ovenproof frying pan over medium-high
heat. Season the outside of the chickens with salt and pepper. Brown
the chickens in the pan, turning once to brown on all sides. When browned,
transfer the whole pan to the oven and roast for 30–35 minutes until the meat
is tender, basting regularly with all the roasting juices. (If cooking a larger chicken,
allow a longer cooking time—usually 1 hour to 1 hour 20 minutes or so.)
To check, insert the tip of a small knife near the bone; if the juices run clear,
the chicken is cooked.
3Serve the chickens with piping-hot home-made french fries or roasted
potatoes, or with a green salad with bitter and peppery leaves.
Note To try to be more authentic (but without using a spit or rotisserie), place
a pan of hand-cut french fries splashed with a little olive oil and seasoned with
salt and pepper at the bottom of the oven while you are cooking the chicken.
Put the chicken on a rack above the potatoes, so that all the juices drip onto the
potatoes. Turn the potatoes regularly during cooking, and pour any leftover juices
from inside the chicken over the top just before serving.