Rellenong Manok (Filipino Stuffed Chicken with Pork)

Debone the chicken. Loosen the wing drummette and thigh bones from their sockets. Remove all excess fat and the tail. Be careful not to break the skin. Slit the back of the chicken with a small sharp knife. Cut as close to the bone as possible to separate the meat from the bones. Start w/ one side of the back and work your way to the thigh area then on to the breast. Do the same with the other side, so that the ribcage comes off and only the drumsticks, thigh and wing bones are left. Hold the end of the thigh bone and scrape the meat off the thigh and the leg bone, leaving the end of the drumsticks attached. Take a cleaver and chop off the bone from the end of the drumstick. Do the same w/ the other leg. Remove the wing drummetes and leave the other wing bones in. The meat and skin should be in one piece. If small pieces of meat comes off, dont worry, you can always stuff it back in. Save bones and make chicken stock out of it. Soak the chicken in the soy sauce and lemon juice for about 30 minutes. In a large bowl, mix all the stuffing ingredients except the hard boiled eggs. Lay the deboned chicken on a flat surface w/ the back side up. Fill the chicken w/ the stuffing. starting w/ the legs and wings, pushing it in so that there are no empty spaces. Put a layer of stuffing on the breast and arrange the hardboiled eggs down the center. Put more stuffing on top of the eggs. Sew up the slit on the back. I use a large needle and a fine dental floss. It should now resembe a spineless chicken who ate too much. Arrange the chicken on a roasting rack and add water to the pan underneath. Bake at 350 degrees for about 1 hour and 15-30 minutes. If the skin browns too much cover it w/ foil or cover w/ foil at the beginning and remove it midway. To prepare the gravy, drain the drippings from the pan and separate the grease. Reserve about 2 tbsp of the grease and dispose of the rest. In a small pan, heat the reserve grease over medium heat and add 2 heaping tbsp of flour. Mix until it forms a paste. Stir in the rest of the drippings. and cook over low heat until hot. If it's too thick, add chicken stock. To serve, transfer the chicken to a large serving platter and remove the thread from the back. Slice into 1/2 thickness and garnish. Serve the gravy on the side. VARIATIONS: Gallantina Same procedure as above, except that the wing tips are cut off and all the bones are removed. Stuff the chicken as above and form into a roll. Wrap the chicken tightly in aluminum foil and simmer in chicken broth for about 1 hour. Embutido (pork roll) Same ingridients as the stuffing but instead of chopping the sausages, cut them into halves, lengthwise and the eggs into quarters. Mix all the ingredients except for the hardboiled eggs adn sausages. Divide the stuffing into two and form into logs w/ the eggs and sausage arranged in the center of each roll. Wrap tightly in foil and either bake at 350 degrees for about an hour and 15 m. or simmer in a big pot w/ about an inch of water for an hour. To serve, remove the foil and slice it diagonally.