This weekend was a busy one for work… at the backend of long
days and some midnight on-call sessions. What better way to reset our schedule
than some Sunday afternoon chicken roasting? When the world goes upside down, I
roast a chicken. It’s an easy, satisfying cook that doesn’t require finesse, is
not too long and not too short, and fills the house with the promise of home
and normalcy.
Now, the recipe here is nothing fancy. It’s pure comfort
food. Slight east Asian flavours with ginger and bird’s eye chilies were tossed
through a can of chickpeas, half an onion finely diced, along with the chopped
last of a head of broccolini, a bunch of garlic and a couple glugs of soya
sauce. I use as much as I can of this to stuff the chicken cavity.
The bird is patted dry, rubbed with butter, liberally salted
and further seasoned with some cayenne and ginger. Into the oven for 30 minutes
at 450.
Meanwhile, the rest of the spicy chickpea mixture is tossed
through some pre-cooked and cooled rice. Some more soya sauce.
At the 450 mark the chick comes out and carefully set aside.
If any pieces of skin have stuck to the sheet pan, scrape them off and mix them
into the rice as you arrange the rice onto the sheet. You don’t want it too
thick or too thin. Make a little space in the middle where the chicken can fit,
then have the rice arranged in a ring around it that it will not burn and dry
out. You want the bottom to soak up the chicken fat and make a nice crisp bed.
Cook for another 45 minutes or so at 350.
Take the chicken out, test for doneness and set aside for
ten minutes. I’ll usually give the rice a good mix, spread it out again and
crank up the oven for another 10 minutes at 400.
Now, this all went to plan. The aim is to serve the chicken
alongside the rice and a spoonful of the chickpea stuffing/salad, and then to
go in for extras of the rich, chicken-fat flavoured rice. Rujira came over to
inspect and start with the plating when she began to laugh.
“It’s upside down!” She shook her head, “Again!”
I didn’t believe her and we proceeded with a short debate I
lost as soon as I opened my mouth. It was upside down.
Right at the start of our COVID-distancing adventure, I’d
for some reason cooked a chicken breast-side down rather than up. I’ve never
done this before. I’d since done it more than once again. I have no idea
why.
Truth, though, with everything else upside down, why not
this, too? The results are less picturesque. There’s something awesome to
behold in a chicken breast with perfectly crisp skin cut from the bone and
plated in one perfect slice. The skin here is not that crisp because the breast
sits in the juice as it cooks…
Yet the taste, as I’ve come to realize, is incredible. The
meat is actually amazing, as the fat from the dark meat pours down onto the
breast during the cook, keeping it juice and extra flavourful.
Is it Instagram-worthy? Maybe not. Will it become a part of
the new normal we’re negotiating? I think so.
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