Toyuq Lavangi

Ingredients

• 1.8 kg whole chicken
• 3 large onions
• 250 g shelled walnuts
• 4 tbsp alcha (sour plum) paste, or 3 tbsp pomegranate molasses
• 60 g dried sour plums or prunes, chopped
• 1 tsp salt for the stuffing
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 1/2 tsp ground turmeric
• 40 g butter, softened
• 1 tsp salt for the skin
• 2 tbsp pomegranate molasses for brushing
• seeds of 1/2 pomegranate, to serve

Before you cook

• Grate the onions, then wrap them in a clean cloth and wring out the juice as hard as you can.
• Grind the walnuts to a coarse meal.
• Chop the dried plums.
• Pat the chicken dry inside and out.

Steps

1. Mix the wrung-out onion with the ground walnuts in a bowl.
2. Stir in the sour plum paste, the chopped dried plums, salt, pepper and turmeric.
3. Knead the stuffing with your hands for 2 minutes, until it holds together as a dark dense paste.
4. Taste it and add more sour plum paste if it is not sharp enough to cut the walnut fat.
5. Heat the oven to 190C.
6. Pack the stuffing into the chicken cavity, firmly but not so tightly that the skin splits.
7. Close the cavity with a skewer or sew it shut with kitchen string.
8. Tie the legs together and rub the whole bird with the softened butter and the salt.
9. Set the chicken breast up in a roasting tin and cover it loosely with foil.
10. Roast it for 60 minutes.
11. Take off the foil and brush the bird all over with pomegranate molasses.
12. Roast for another 30 minutes, until the skin is dark and the juices at the thigh run clear.
13. Rest the chicken for 15 minutes before carving.
14. Spoon the stuffing out onto a warm platter and lay the carved chicken over it.
15. Scatter pomegranate seeds across the top and serve.