Recipe : Roast Chicken

At my parents’ place, my mum always cooked us a Stuffed Roast Chicken along with many other sides every Christmas. Seldom did this menu change. This was tradition. We never really used a carving fork and knife. We’d savagely rip off tender juicy pieces that would just fall off the bone. My mum would stuff, sew and tie the chicken to contain all the stuffing. Today, we’re just making a simple roast. It’s super easy and quick. All you need is 3 minutes of active work; and then you can just sit back and attend to anything else while the oven does the rest.

Preparation Time: 3 mins

Cooking Time: 1 hour 20 mins – 1 hour 35 mins

Ingredients:

1. 1.2 kg – 1.5 kg Chicken with Skin
2. Salt to taste
3. 2 tbsp Red Chilly powder
4. juice of 1 Lemon
5. 1.5 tbsp Butter, optional

METHOD:

1. Preheat your oven at 180-200 degrees C for 10 minutes.
2. Wash and clean the chicken well.
3. Prepare a tray by lining it with aluminium foil. {It makes cleaning so much easier}
4. Rub salt, red chilly powder, lemon juice and butter all over the chicken.
5. There is no need to truss/twine/tie/sew the chicken. If you have an oven that is big enough to accommodate an untied bird, it is a better option because tying up the bird just increases cooking time at the leg and thigh joints while you end up overcooking the tender breasts. If you really must, just poke few toothpicks to keep the wings on the body, but let the legs hang freely. Those bits just take longer to cook.
6. If your oven has a rotisserie function, I highly recommend it. If not, you can just lay it on your tray.
7. Grill {top heating rods} for approximately 1 hour 10 minutes at 170 degrees. {If you don’t have a rotisserie function, you can turn it over in between basting it with the juices that drip into the tray.}
8. Once almost done, char it a bit for 10 minutes on the highest heat setting, which is about 200 degrees C to 230 degrees C for most ovens. This will make it nice and crispy on the outside and give you delicious charred bits too.
9. Please wait for at least 10 minutes before you begin to carve the meat. This resting time is of utmost importance because if you do not wait, all the delicious juices flow out of the meat into your tray rendering the meat dry and cardboard-like.

I hope you enjoy this dish as much as my family does. Let me know how it turned out. Happy Cooking!