Roast chicken with couscous & pine nut stuffing

Ingredients

• 100 g couscous 
• 175 ml chicken stock see boiling
• 50 g butter 
• 1  onion finely chopped
• 1  garlic clove crushed
• 100 g pinenuts 
• 140 g apricot dried roughly chopped
• 1 large handful parsley roughly chopped
• 2 tbsp mint leaves roughly chopped
• 1  optional: lemon 
• 1  eggs beaten
• 6  chicken breast skinless
• 16  bacon 

Equipment

• bowl
• frying pan
• oven
• knife
• aluminum foil
• metal skewers

Directions

1. Put couscous in a large heatproof bowl, pour over stock, then cover with cling film for 5 mins until liquid is absorbed. Melt half the butter in a pan, then gently cook onion and garlic for 5-8 mins until soft. Set aside. Dry-fry pine nuts for a few mins until golden.
2. Combine onions, pine nuts, apricots and herbs with couscous.
3. Add a good squeeze of lemon juice, season, then stir in egg. Leave to cool.
4. Using the back of a knife, stretch rashers to 1 times their original length.
5. Lay, slightly overlapping, on a large sheet of foil to form a rectangle. Make a few slashes in the thickest part of each chicken breast and lay between 2 sheets of cling film. Use the base of a heavy pan to bash the chicken until about 1cm thick. Arrange chicken over the bacon, fitting so there are no gaps, but leave a border on longer sides. (This helps to roll up the chicken.)
6. Spoon stuffing over chicken in a strip along one of the longest sides. Using tin foil to help, roll bacon and chicken around stuffing like a log. Wrap tightly in foil, twisting the ends to secure, then chill for 2 hrs or up to 1 day.
7. Heat oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas
8. Place chicken, join-side down, in a roasting tray. Cook for 30 mins, then unwrap foil and brush roast with remaining butter. Cook, uncovered, for 20-30 mins more until cooked through, and the stuffing is hot (a metal skewer inserted into the chickens centre should come out hot). Cool and wrap in fresh foil to transport.