Malay Roasted Chicken

AYAM PANGGANG

This is a roasted chicken marinated in fresh spices. Very similar ingredients used in Indian cooking, except the diary component- yoghurt.  This goes really well with the Nasi Lemak. It would actually go well with our very own pulao etc. The trick is also to use a very nice juicy tender part of the chicken, so I went ahead and bought the boneless chicken legs. I just went a bit towards more yummy..let the skin cling on to the chicken meat. The logic here I can give..with the experience from cooking the Indian kebabs, even though they are all lean meat ( without the skin), we have yoghurt which acts as the moisturizer to the meat, hence it doesn't end up dry and meaty roasted chicken. But in this case, I don't have my yoghurt buddy, so I listen to the locals here, and let the drape on the chicken meat..The photograph here is obvious of what I mean the crispy yet succulent skin draped on the juicy chicken. YUMMY!!! yes, its just not the words here but it tasted the same.

Not too many ingredients but very simple and straight forward recipe leading to a great compliment to Nasi Lemak. In my recipe, I have used not too much chillies , obvious reason R being the centre of attraction, S and I just add more chillies while eating..you can go more friendly towards a more spicy version.

What  I used-

Boneless Chicken Leg- 3 pieces ( wash and clean, leave it whole, do not cut) - it is always advisable to roast a bigger piece and then cut or trim the final product- a tip from a local chef.

Onions- 2

Ginger - 1 inch or a bit more ( as I used more ginger than the original recipe, as I went low on chillies)

Garlic- 6-7 cloves

Lemongrass- 3

Chillies- as much hot as u want

Galangal- 1 inch

Turmeric- 2 tsp

Cumin- 3 tsp

Coriander- 3 tsp

Salt to taste

How I cooked-

1. Blend Onion , Ginger, Garlic, Lemongrass, Galangal, chillies into a crunchy paste. Now this is a weird description I have used here - crunchy paste. What I mean is not a smooth paste but coarse one. It gives a good texture when roasted.

2. Marinate the chicken pieces with the blend and the dry powders and salt. Remember to massage the chicken nicely and let some of the marinade peep underneath the skin too. I marinated the chicken for 12 hours. It can be kept for a day too.

3. Preheat the oven to 210 degrees Celsius.

4.Take a baking dish and line a aluminium foil. Season the foil with oil. Place the marinated chicken skin side up. Sprinkle some oil on the chicken and massage it again. This would prevent drying skin.

5. Once you are satisfied with the your tray full of lovely bright yellow chicken..pass on the magic words and put them in the oven at 180 degree Celsius for 20 minutes. Now you need to keep an eye on the chicken, if required, baste some oil in between and go for another 5 minutes may be.

6. Once the chicken is cooked to your liking, take them out and allow to rest. A new term I have been introduced- Carry over cooking- this is very important for a good roast.

7. After resting, now slice the chicken. It could be a bit tricky to gather the everything together as the skin is nice and crispy and would like to come off easily with the knife, but the skill here is to manage to hold the skin with the meat and not leave the chicken meat naked on the plate.

8. Go ahead with your imaginations and plate it with any garnish. We were just too hungry and my boys could not wait to taste...as they had been waiting patiently even after being appetized with the Nasi Lemak flavours around the kitchen.