I feel queasy handling raw meat especially a whole chicken-it actually feels like handling an infant's body to me- argh! But you know men and their meats n their grubs. So for the sake of domestic harmony i force myself anyhow though i really dont mind the end products.
This time i got a Nutriplus Chicken for RM10+ from Jusco because it was all cleaned without the innards and nicely packaged plus i had that superficial sense of comfort that this chicken was free of antibiotics or so the label says. My 12 year old is ultra sensitive to hormone injected chicken and ive totally banned her from eating chicken but then she is a 12 year old. I dont really know where kampung chicken come from these days. I remember those plump kampung we had around our house back in my small hometown those days that were forever nibbling on worms, grains and stuff. But the ones we hv on the supermarket shelves labelled kampung chicken looks like their miserably starved cousins so i really didnt want to take more risk here.
So i got home and quickly picked up the easiest recipe with in mind of what i had left in stock. I had a bottle of rosemary sitting in the fridge for a year now begging for some action though her oregano and basil cousins have seen a few restocking. And also there was a three-week old lemon someone had passed to me which i juiced and rubbed onto the chicken also. As you can see, i overdid the rosemary part, just a bit too enthusiastic and roasted rosemary apparently can get rather bitter you know, but hey, you can always scrap it off like a burnt toast, haha!
Then my Asian side got the better of me, and what is a true blue Asian Indian without smothering your foods in garlics, ginger and onion. Out came a whole bunch of garlic and 3 inches of ginger. I saved the onion for the potatoes. Bang them on a pestle and mortar and rub all over the chicken and since i got a pack of jalapeno peppers for only RM2.50, i chucked a few into the chicken cavity as well because i had some great ideas of me nibbling on the roasted peppers later on. (I really must stop watching Jamie Oliver too much)
Don't forget salt. As that went in, it all began to come loose, i had to stop myself in nick of time before i threw in the whole motherload-curry powders, oyster sauce, soya sauce, bbq sauce and everything else imaginable into the marinade. So i quickly packed the chicken into those disposable zip bags, plonked it onto a bowl, chucked it into the bottom shelve of the fridge and slammed the door shut.
Nearly 20 hours later, i took it out, dumped it into a greased tray with a few chopped carrots on the side and it went straight into the oven for the next nearly 2 hours at 180 degrees Celsius.
Meanwhile i peeled a kg of good plump potatoes and parboiled it before pot roasting them with a big chunk of butter, a few slivers of garlic, a chopped onion and just a sprinkling of rosemary, as i dont hv enough. I also sprinkled a spoonful of apple cider vinegar as i was out with the balsamic which i dont like much anyway. And seasoned it.
Verdict, the chicken was surprisingly very juicy instead of the dry version i thought id get and had the perfect roasted skin after of course, i scrapped off the excess rosemary. The dogs had a great dinner with the bones and i still had some chicken left to dish up a spaghetti bolognese the next day for lunch with Tesco tomato soup.. but that is another story!
1 comment:
awesome stuff
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