Get the ingredients together. I bought a free-range chicken and asked the butcher to debone it, mince the meat and to give me the carcass and bones in a separate bag. I put them in a pan with water, a couple of bayleaves, 3 cloves, 5 cloves of garlic washed but not peeled, and the other half of the enormous onion and left it simmering for a couple of hours to make chicken stock, some of which I used to make some miso soup for dinner.

Put the minced chicken in a large bowl. Mix it - the thigh and leg meat is darker and juicer than the breast meet, which is why it's a good idea to mix it well (hands work best - you're going to get your hands dirty anyway later when making the balls....).

Add the grated onion, salt, herbs, pepper and mix again.

Make balls of meat and make a hole in the middle with your thumb. Add the filling - either a spoonful of pesto or a knob of blue cheese

Close the balls. I put the larger ones on an oven tray and inside the oven, preheated top and bottom to 200º

Put a small amount of oil in a non-stick pan and once it is hot, add the burgers. Cook over a moderate to high heat - my stove can heat from 1 minimum to 9 maximum and I did these at 7.

When you can see the bottom sides of the burgers changing colour as in the photo

Flip them over - I needed to use tongs and a spatula because they still weren't firm enough to only use tongs. Leave them another 5 minutes or so

Then just to make sure they are cooked through, flip again, lower the heat and cover for another 2 or 3 minutes

If using the oven, you don't need to flip. When they look done, turn on the grill and leave for a couple of minutes and then flip to grill the other side.

Put on a warm plate and serve. The pesto ones are at the front, cheese at the back

When the oven ones were cool, I put them in a plastic container and froze them for another day. We'll probably eat them cold with a salad or use them as picnic food one day next week.