Home Traditions: Oriental Roast Chicken

By Andrea Pavee

With a promise to keep, here is the recipe for the Oriental Roast Chicken previously mentioned in the post on Green Curry.

At my first few attempts, I excluded the plum sauce.

However, with my latest offering, I decided to add in a big dollop of plum sauce as part of the marinade. I was not disappointed. And to think I always used plum sauce as a dipping sauce for fried wantons and fried chicken!

Roast chicken is one of the easiest dishes to make as all you need to do is marinate your bird and then load it into an oven.

The marinade flavours the meat to perfection, and the oven takes over the cooking, leaving you with precious free time.

If you are not in a rush, an overnight marinade really works the flavor into the meat. However, if time is the luxury you cannot afford, just marinade and roast.

The marinade makes a delectable gravy which goes very well with a bowl of steaming rice.

Roasts are very versatile and leftovers can be shredded and tossed into salads, made into a hot pocket filling or as protein to the humble sandwich.

To make, the marinade, mix hoisin and plum sauce together, in equal portions.

Pepper the mixture liberally with cayenne, black and white peppers, and dash of paprika. If you rather not have a spicy bird, leave off the cayenne pepper and use the black and white pepper to suit your family’s palate.

Powdered chicken stock lends a depth of flavor to the marinade, and if you need to, salt it to taste.

Top off your marinade with honey.

For a small bird, a tablespoon of the sauces and honey should be sufficient. For a bigger bird, you will need to adjust the ingredients accordingly.

Once the marinade is ready, pour it over the bird, rubbing it in. Do not forget to marinade the inside cavity of your bird.

If you are not popping the bird immediately into the oven, cover it with aluminum foil and leave the bird to soak up the marinade in the fridge. You can turn it over from time to time to ensure even coating.

In the oven, turn the bird over every 20 minutes to prevent it from drying out, and burning. If you notice that your bird is burning on the outside but uncooked on the inside, cover it with aluminum foil and continue baking.

If you are roasting the chicken immediately after marinating the bird, heat up your oven while you prepare your chicken and the marinade, so that the oven is nice and hot when your bird is ready to roast.

I usually roast my chicken with heat turned up to 150 – 180 degrees Celcius. While it may take longer to cook, it prevents the roast from burning and keeps meat moist, tender and juicy.

Enjoy!

Posted by Chayo, HomSkil Editor 1, 27 January 2023