Wow it has been 3 years since I did my last entry (which incidentally also was after a long break and was titled I am back!). Hahahaha I guess the joke is on me. Yes it has been a long time and no I have not gone into hiding. But have been busy with many many many things. Yes I have been doing a lot more cooking too! Sadly in 99% cases I forget to take pics of the final product (let alone the whole cooking process). Only after devouring the whole thing does it occur to me that maybe it would have been a good idea if I had taken a photo of the item.
Anyway, I hope that I will get my act together (yes I have said that plenty of times before too) and try to do a better job going forward. But in the past few years, I have been doing a lot more experiments with cooking. Been doing a lot of banking. Trying to figure out if there is by any chance a tiny possibility I might have some artistic capability and churn out great looking dishes. So far the taste bit has been a success but the beautiful plating, piping, etc has not that great. It could be attributed to my total lack of patience. I am impatient and if I am needed to make a nice dish most of my patience is dedicated to getting the dish done ie cooked and ready to eat.
I am just blown away with all the beautiful plating and dishes in Masterchef and I am officially obsessed with that show. Never has a reality show bitten me this bad. But I am rambling and not getting to the REAL reason for me to suddenly wake up a write an entry into the blog. THE reason for getting out of Hibernation is to share a fabulous let me spell it out to you F-A-B-U-L-O-U-S chicken roast recipe that takes 15 minutes to put together, about 40 minutes in the oven. A roast chicken that makes its own rich flavorful gravy in the same pan. Now how cool is that?
Now if you want to cook a comforting, wholesome meal on weeknights and you show up at home about 1 hour before dinner time after spending 1.5 hours fighting the awful rush hour traffic, this is what you should make. If not for anyone, for yourself at least (and you can say thank you very much later). The only thing you need to plan ahead is to have a whole chicken thawed and ready in the fridge.
If you are pressed for time, to do a whole roast chicken you need to Spatchcock the chicken . How do you do it? You basically get hold of a pair of good kitchen shears and cut along the two sides of backbone of the chicken about half an inch away from the backbone itself, and remove the whole backbone. There are a million videos to teach you. Go head YouTube it, it will change your life (it sure did mine).
The marinade is very simple mix of ingredients that you can easily get your hands on. Yes you might have to search a little for the Miso Paste but that is the only special ingredient you need. And you need Miso paste in your life. It is a gorgeous Umami filled paste that has endless possibilities in your kitchen. Buy a packet, store it in your fridge (a bit) and the rest in the freezer (like I do) and trust me it will see you through many a days when there is NOTHING to inspire you and the last thing you feel like doing is wonder what to cook and what to eat. I got mine from Korean Mart in Banani, Dhaka.
Going back to the chicken. So basically spatchcock the chicken, clean the inside, pat it dry and let it come to room temperature(ish). Well ideally you should if you have an extra 30 minutes but if you don't just rub the marinade and let it sit for 10 minutes. This is how my spatchcocked chicken looked like.
For the marinade you just need to mix up your miso paste, honey, vinegar (rice wine or red wine or white wine), dried parsley (fresh if you have at hand), grated ginger, and soy sauce.
If you have an sous chef at home, this is a good time to get her in.
Once you have mixed them all up, go ahead and taste it. Adjust to your liking. Want more Miso bring it on, too salty? Add some honey or vinegar or both. Want a bit of heat? Put in some of chili flakes.
Put the chicken in an ovenproof dish and gently loosen the skin from the meat (careful don't tear the skin). Spoon half the marinade between the skin and the meat and gently massage it to all the part of the chicken. Turn it around and coat the inside of the chicken with a couple of teaspoon full of the marinade. Turn it back to the skin side up and cover the outside of the chicken with the remaining marinade. Give the fellow a massage. Let it sit covered in the gorgeous smelling coating for 10 minutes. You can go and start to pre-heat the oven now at 190 degrees C.
When your oven is nice and toasty, put the chicken inside. Midway use some of the accumulated pan juice and baste the chicken (forgot to do it? you have figured by now that it is not essential.) While the chicken is roasting, you can boil some veg, potato or toss a salad to go with the chicken. Some buttery pasta would also be lovely with a bit of Parmesan sprinkled on top.
Check after 30 minutes or so to see whether the chicken is done or not. The chicken is done when you poke the deepest part of the meat (breast and the thigh) and the juices run clear. I usually stick my meat thermometer and see if it points to poultry.
Remove the chicken from the roasting pan to a serving platter and let it rest for 5 minutes before serving. Drain the pan juices in to a bowl. Yup here is your gravy. Skim a bit of the fat from the top of the pan juice. I left my chicken a bit too long (was busy fooling around with the kids) thus the not so perfect chicken but it still looked and tasted darn good!
Carve the chicken and serve with the pan juice gravy drizzled on top. Now you can say Thank You!
One Pan Miso Marinated Chicken and Gravy
Ingredients:
3 to 3.5 Tbs - Miso Paste (I used brown Miso Paste)
1 to 1.5 Tbs - Soy Sauce
2-3 Tbs - Honey
2.5 Inch nob - Ginger (finely grated)
1/2 Tsp - Dried Parsley
2 Tbs - Rice Wine Vinegar (or white wine or red wine)
1 Skin on Whole Chicken (mine was about 1.2 Kg) ideally at room temperature
Method:
Pre-heat the oven to 190 degrees C
1. Spatchcock the chicken. Wash it and then pat dry with paper towel
2. Mix together all the marinade ingredients.
3. Gently loosen the skin from the meat and place on a roasting pan with raised edges. Spoon about half the marinade between the skin and the meat and gently massage the marinade all over the chicken meat.
4. Rub a couple of spoons of marinade on the underside of the chicken.
5. Pour the remaining marinade all over the top of the chicken and gently rub it all over the skin.
6. Let the chicken marinate for 10 minutes at room temperature.
7. Place the chicken in the oven and bake for 30-45 minutes (depending on your chicken size and oven). Baste the chicken once half way through the baking using the pan juice. Check whether it is done either by "juices running clear test" or using a meat thermometer.
8. Remove the chicken and place on a serving platter. Let it rest for 5 minutes. Drain the pan juice to a serving bowl, skim some of the fat from the top.
9. Serve it hot with the gravy on the side and vegetable, salad, mashed potato or any other side of your choice. Enjoy!!
P.S. The left over chicken makes great sandwich for the next day and the left over gravy an out of this world dipping sauce for the sandwich. Yes you can say Thank you again :)
No comments:
Post a Comment