Midwinter Roast Goose with Spiced Apple, Sage & Sourdough Stuffing

⏱ 270 min · Serves 8

The ultimate celebration bird: a goose roasted slowly until the skin is lacquered and shatteringly crisp, the fat rendered out for the best roast potatoes of your life. Inside, a fragrant stuffing of sweet-sharp Bramley apple, sage, cinnamon and toasted sourdough, with a cider and Madeira gravy to bring it all home.

Per serving: 892 kcal · 56.0g protein · 34.0g carbs · 56.0g fat

Ingredients

• 1 oven-ready goose, about 5-5.5kg, giblets reserved
• 2 tsp flaky sea salt, plus more for the skin
• 1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
• 1 lemon, halved
• 2 bay leaves
• For the stuffing:
• 250g day-old sourdough, torn into rough 2cm pieces
• 60g butter
• 1 large onion, finely diced
• 2 celery sticks, finely diced
• 300g Bramley apples, peeled and diced
• 150g pork sausagemeat (or 150g extra chestnuts for a lighter version)
• 100g cooked chestnuts, roughly crumbled
• 20g fresh sage leaves, finely shredded
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp ground allspice
• Grated zest of 1 orange
• 1 egg, beaten
• 100ml chicken stock
• For the gravy:
• 1 onion, quartered
• 1 carrot, chunked
• 2 tbsp plain flour
• 250ml dry cider
• 100ml Madeira
• 700ml chicken or goose stock
• 1 tbsp redcurrant jelly
• 1 tsp cider vinegar

Method

1. The day before if you can: pat the goose completely dry, prick the skin all over the breast and thighs with a skewer (through the fat, not the meat), rub with the salt and pepper and leave uncovered on a rack in the fridge overnight. This is the secret to crisp skin.
2. Make the stuffing: spread the sourdough on a tray and toast at 180C/160C fan for 10 minutes until dry and lightly golden. Melt the butter in a large pan and soften the onion and celery for 8 minutes. Add the apple, sage, cinnamon and allspice and cook 3 minutes more, then cool.
3. Combine the toasted bread, apple mixture, sausagemeat, chestnuts, orange zest, egg and stock. Season well. Spoon about a third loosely into the goose cavity along with the lemon halves and bay; press the rest into a buttered baking dish.
4. Heat the oven to 220C/200C fan. Sit the goose breast-up on a rack in a deep roasting tin, scatter the gravy onion and carrot and the giblets underneath, and pour in 200ml water. Roast 30 minutes.
5. Reduce to 170C/150C fan and roast for a further 2 hours 30 minutes, carefully ladling off the fat every 40 minutes into a heatproof bowl (save it - liquid gold). Cover the breast with foil if it colours too fast.
6. Turn the oven back up to 220C/200C fan for a final 15-20 minutes to crisp the skin. The goose is done when a thigh probes 75C and the juices run clear.
7. Lift the goose onto a board, tent loosely with foil and rest for 30-40 minutes. Meanwhile bake the dish of stuffing for 35 minutes until crisp on top.
8. Gravy: pour off all but 2 tbsp fat from the tin, set it over low heat and stir the flour into the vegetables and sticky bits. Cook 2 minutes, then splash in the cider and Madeira, scraping hard. Bubble to reduce by half, add the stock, redcurrant jelly and vinegar and simmer 10-15 minutes. Strain, season and keep hot.
9. Carve the breasts off whole and slice on the diagonal; remove the legs and pull the meat into chunks. Serve with the stuffing, gravy and goose-fat roast potatoes.