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DIRECTIONS

Equipment: Either a trussing needle and white string, or a lacing pin (for neck skin) and 4 feet of soft white string (butcher's corned-beef twine recommended); a stew pot just tall enough to hold the chicken submerged plus 4 inches of extra room (make it stainless steel or enamel if you are cooking with wine; aluminum can discolor both the wine and the chicken)
Herb and bread crumb stuffing: Cook the onions slowly in the butter until tender and translucent. Meanwhile, peel and mince the gizzard, and add to the onions; then mince the heart, and add to the onions; and finally, when onions are almost tender, mince the liver. Stir it in and cook a minute or 2, just to stiffen. Scrape into a mixing bowl, stir in the rest of the ingredients, and season carefully to taste.
Preparing and stuffing the chicken: Pull any clinging fat out from the chicken's cavity, and make sure the cavity is free of other extraneous bits. For easier carving, remove the wishbone: open skin flap at neck and feel the fork of the bone with your finger, running from top of breast down each side; cut around the 2 tines of the fork and the top, then cut down to detach fork ends at each side. Cut off wing nubbins at elbows. If you wish an automatic basting system and there is enough chicken fat to do so, place fat between 2 sheets of wax paper and lb to a thickness of about 1/8 inch (1/2 cm). Slip your fingers between skin and flesh over the breast on both sides, to detach skin, and slide in the fat over the breast meat. Secure the neck skin (below) against the back of the chicken and fold wings akimbo.
Just before cooking it, salt the cavity of the chicken lightly, spoon in the stuffing, and truss the chicken.
Trussing a Chicken with String: Sew or skewer the neck skin against the neck end of the backbone, to hold it in place. Provide yourself with a piece of soft white string (butcher's corned-beef twine recommended) 4 feet long and proceed as follows:
Set chicken on its back, its tail toward you. Fold the string in half, and place its center under the chicken's tail piece.
Cross the string over the top of the tail piece.
Bring one end of the string from its side of the tail piece under the end of its opposite drumstick , then up over it, and down to ward the side of the tail piece from which It came. Repeat the same movement from the other side.
To close the vent and bring the drumstick ends together, pull the 2 ends of string away from the sides of the chicken. Turn the chicken on its side.
Fold the wings akimbo, wing ends tucked against the back of the neck. Bring the end of string nearest you along the side of the chicken and on top of the folded wing on the same side, then under the wing, coming out at the back again from under the armpit. Repeat with the string on the other side - along side of chicken, over top of wing, under it, and back again under armpit.
Pull both string ends tight across back to hold the chicken in form, and by doing so you will make the wings stand out akimbo to brace the chicken when you turn it breast up. Tie the string ends together at one side of the backbone.
Note: You may have to sew or skewer the vent opening closed if you have a loose stuffing, but the string truss is often sufficient to hold everything in place.
Chicken should be stuffed only just before cooking, since stuffing may start to spoil (especially because it contains bread crumbs), and that will spoil the whole chicken, resulting in a nasty case of food poisoning for all who dine upon it.
Poaching the chicken: (2-1/2 to 3 hours) Place the chicken in the pot and pour on enough liquid to cover it by 3 inches (8 cm). Add the specified amount of salt, cover loosely, and bring rapidly to the simmer. Skim off gray scum that will continue to rise for 5 minutes or more, then add the vegetables and herb bouquet. Maintain at the slow simmer, partially covered, for 2 hours. (A hard simmer or boil will break the flesh apart.) Add water if liquid evaporates to expose ingredients.
Chicken is not done until a sharp pronged fork will pierce the large end of the drumstick easily. For 2 hours or more, flesh will be rubbery; then, suddenly, it will become tender, and it should be tested frequently, at 7-minute intervals, when the time might be close. Drumstick meat will just begin to fall from bone when chicken is done; white breast meat will hold, but be tender. Do not overcook.
Chicken will stay warm in its pot for 2 hours or more, partially covered, and may be gently reheated if it cools too much. Chicken should stay in its poaching liquid until serving time; the meat dries out otherwise.
Warning about Covered Pots: Always allow for air circulation, especially when the chicken is not simmering. Cooking liquid and chicken can easily spoil in a nonsimmering covered pot, due to some chemical or bacterial relation between closed containers and warm chicken.
Serving suggestions: The chicken is now ready to be eaten. To serve it cold, let it cool in its cooking liquid and it is ready for salads and sandwiches.