Bird stuffed with first of chestnuts on the empty dish (7)
I believe the answer is:
cocotte
'dish' is the definition.
(type of dish for cooking in)
'bird stuffed with first of chestnuts on the empty' is the wordplay.
'bird' becomes 'coot' (coot is a kind of bird).
'stuffed with' indicates putting letters inside (some letters get stuffed inside).
'first of' suggests taking the first letters.
'on' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'empty' suggests removing the centre.
'the' with its middle taken out is 'te'.
The first letter of 'chestnuts' is 'c'.
'coot' going around 'c' is 'cocot'.
'cocot'+'te'='COCOTTE'
(Other definitions for cocotte that I've seen before include "Loose woman" , "type of dish" , "Tart" , "Small heatproof dish" , "Fashionable prostitute" .)