Coconut and lemongrass roast chicken recipe
The inspiration for this comes from an excellent Malay dish called ayam percik, where chicken is grilled (broiled) over charcoal flames after being marinated in an irresistible coconut and lemongrass sauce. It also works very well simply slathered over some skin-on boneless thighs, left to marinate overnight, and then chucked onto a barbecue! The sauce has a hefty chilli kick, so if you prefer less, simply halve the number of chillies and the amount of sugar.
You will need to start this recipe the night before to allow for marinating time.
Ingredients
For the spice paste- 4 lemongrass stalks, roughly chopped
- 100 g onion, roughly chopped
- 4 garlic cloves
- 1.5 tsp ground turmeric
- 4 red chillies, roughly chopped
- 1.5 tsp shrimp paste (or replace with 2 tbsp fish sauce)
- 1.5 tsp salt
- 2 tbsp white sugar
- 2 tbsp oil
- 1 x amount of spice paste
- 120 ml coconut milk
- 1 whole chicken (around 1.6kg/3lb 8oz)
Details
- Cuisine: Malaysian-inspired
- Recipe Type: Chicken
- Difficulty: Easy
- Preparation Time: 15 mins
- Cooking Time: 75 mins
- Serves: 4
Step-by-step
- The day before you want to cook the chicken, prepare the marinade by blitzing the spice paste ingredients into a fine purée.
- Put the paste into a saucepan and fry it off over a medium heat, stirring constantly for 5 minutes.
- Now add the coconut milk, bring to the boil and simmer on the lowest heat for another 10 minutes, stirring often. Turn off the heat. If the sauce is a bit lumpy with bits of chilli or lemongrass, use a handheld blender to blitz it further so that it is smooth. Leave to cool.
- Once the sauce is cool, use half of it to smear all over the chicken, including underneath and inside the cavity, then place it in a large roasting tray and put it in the fridge overnight, uncovered, to let the flavours penetrate. Save half of the sauce to baste the chicken the next day.
- The next day, take the chicken out of the fridge and let it rest in its roasting tray on the kitchen counter, uncovered, for 2 hours to dry out further and to come to room temperature.
- While the chicken is coming to room temperature, preheat the oven to 200°C/180°C fan/400°F/gas mark 6 (fan ovens are particularly effective for roasting meats).
- Cover the chicken with foil and place it in the oven to cook for 30 minutes.
- Halfway through the cooking time, discard the foil and baste the chicken with the remaining sauce. Roast for a further 30 minutes.
- At the end of the cooking time, take the tray out of the oven and transfer the chicken to a board to rest for 15 minutes before carving. Spoon any excess sauce left in the roasting tray over the chicken just before you dig in.
This recipe is from Sambal Shiok: The Malaysian Cookbook by Mandy Yin (Quadrille, £25). Photography © Louise Hagger.
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