Roast Rooster with pancetta, broccoli and bulgar wheat – Κοκκορας στο φουρνο με παντσετα, μπροκολι και πληγουρι

Today’s dish is good for the wet windy weather we had in Athens today. It is warm, soft, crunchy, tasty, and nutritious, to mention a few of its attributes! If you do not believe me, the only thing you have to do is try for yourselves!

Rooster is the integrating element of the dish. Get a big one, the bigger the better!

The next building element of the dish is bulgar wheat. We prepare a mix for the filling of the bird, and then we use it also to supplement the dish with the broccoli.

For the mix we need fresh onions, red and green peppers and parsley, salt and pepper.

The third element of the dish is pancetta. Today I did not have cured belly so I used fresh. It does not really matter, as long as it is really fresh.Make sure you take out all the bones. You can mix them with the wheat for extra flavor.

Finally, you need a nice piece of broccoli to provide the vegetable aspect of the dish.

After you stuff the bird, you add the bulgar wheat around it, the pancetta on top of it to provide extra moisture, and the broccoli on top of the wheat all over the baking tray. Sprinkle generously with coarse sea salt and pepper, rosemary and fresh oregano, and you are ready for roasting.

Roasting is the most difficult part of preparing the dish. For the first 20 minutes you need strong heat (250 degrees Celcius). Then you cover with foil the whole tray, reduce the heat to 200 degrees for another 20 minutes. Finally, remove the foil and “grill” for another 10 minutes.

What you see on the photo is that the pancetta pieces have been removed from the bird before the “grill” in order to give some color ot the skin and make it crunchy.

The result was a moist, tasty bird, on top of the bulgar wheat bed which was full of all the flavors, of the bird and the pancetta. The broccoli added a tone of sanity to the dish, while the pancetta was delicious. The fatty bit was crunchy (because of the “Grill”) and the meat moist and flavorful.