Friday, 31 January 2014

Foodie Friday - Soy, lemon & five-spice roast chicken

by Bex

This was a great healthy alternative to the usual roast with all the trimmings.  Nik is always in charge of roasts and we both loved this one!  The recipe suggests serving with rice and steamed greens or stir fried veg but we had rice and steamed sprouts, I absolutely love sprouts and it made it feel a bit more like a roast dinner for me.  The sauce to go with the chicken was extremely tangy and strongly flavoured, I was not at all convinced until I tried it over the chicken with the rice and it really works, so delish!

This is another recipe from my BBC Good Food magazine subscription which I love!

Serves 4
Ingredients:
thumb sized piece of ginger, thinly sliced
1 large chicken (appx 1.8-2kg), untied
2 bunches spring onions
1 bulb garlic cut across the middle
1 lemon, halved plus 4 wedges
1 tsp Chinese five-spice powder
2 tbsp sunflower oil
salt & pepper
1 tbsp sunflower oil to drizzle
1-2 tsp golden caster sugar
2 tbsp dark soy sauce
2 tbsp hoisin sauce
fragrant rice & green vegetables to serve

Method:
Put most of the sliced ginger into a large roasting tin then sit the chicken on top.  Stuff the chicken with remaining ginger, the green ends from one bunch of onions, half of the garlic and half a lemon.  Mix the five-spice, 2 tbsp oil and seasoning then rub all over the chicken.  Nestle the other half of the garlic bulb next to the chicken and drizzle all with 1 tbsp oil.  Loosely re-tie the legs and set aside at room temp for 30 mins or so.

Heat the oven to 190oC (170 fan) and roast the chicken for 1 hour.  Toss the lemon wedges and spring onion ends into the pan juices then roast for 30 mins more or until the meat is cooked at the thickest part of the thigh and the lemon wedges are sticky.


Lift the chicken from the pan and set aside, uncovered, to rest.

Spoon away any excess fat from the pan, then place on a medium heat and bring to a simmer.  Add 1 tsp sugar, the soy, hoisin, juice from the remaining half lemon and any resting juices.  Simmer for a few mins until it thickens slightly then check the seasoning and add more sugar if needed.  Serve with the chicken, rice and vegetables.

It doesn't look great on the plate as I particularly love the leg & thigh meat which doesn't make for such a pretty photo but it tasted amazing!  :)  As I was a bit weary of the strong sauce at first, I didn't have much but soon drizzled it all over my sprouts too!


1 comment:

Unknown said...

My dad used to do spiced roast chicken and I'd have the leftovers in sandwiches for school for the rest of the week. Sorry this recipe just makes me very nostalgic!

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