This has to be one of the easiest - as well as tastiest - ways to cook up a big platter of chicken pieces. This one’s a winner and I’m just pleased I actually noted down what I was adding when I made it (up) on Saturday so I can share it with you!
Saturday lunch was my family celebration for my birthday and I wanted to cook something special but also easy to share and to eat.
So this pile of chicken was to go alongside beef marinaded in green peppercorns, chopped coriander stalks and other good things served with a spicy dressing. I also made crushed roasted new potatoes with ginger, garlic and sprinkled with chopped chilli and coriander leaves as well as a big vegetable stir fry with oyster sauce.
Plus a sweet chilli sauce and a green curry ‘gravy’ - just another sauce really but I liked thinking of it as gravy!
I’ll give you the recipe for the amount I made, which I think was about 18 pieces of chicken thigh or drumsticks, and then it’s easy to scale up or down as needed.
So to make the amount I made, you’ll need:
approx 1kg of free-range chicken thighs and drumsticks - they MUST have skin on!
2 long stalks of lemongrass, cut off tough bottom and top, remove tough outer layers and finely chop
4 tablespoons Demerera sugar
6 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped
a good piece of fresh ginger (maybe two thumbs - why is ginger measured in thumbs, btw?), peeled and grated
6 tablespoons fish sauce
6 tablespoons light soy sauce
2 tablespoons dark soy sauce
the juice from 2 juicy limes
1 tablespoon turmeric powder
1 level teaspoon dried chilli flakes
1 level teaspoon ground white pepper
1/2 Knorr chicken stock cube
Chopped fresh coriander leaves and lime to garnish
Put the chicken pieces in a roasting/baking dish.
Mix together all the marinade ingredients (from lemongrass down to white pepper) and when thoroughly combined and the sugar is hopefully at least mostly dissolved, pour over the chicken pieces. Massage into them and ensure all are covered, then cover with foil and leave in the fridge overnight.
When you come to cook the chicken, remove the foil, and crumble in the piece of stock cube and pour over a little boiling water so that it surrounds the chicken but only shallowly.
Put the tray of chicken pieces into a pre-heated oven of 200C / 392F / Gas 6 towards the top of the oven.
Check on it after half an hour - my pieces were getting quite beautifully burnished by that time - and turn them if yours are too.
Put back and check again after another half an hour - you might decide to cover them with foil if they’re getting too well done on the outside, or you might move them to a lower shelf.
They’ll be done after about an hour and a half in total and you could eat immediately or move to a warming oven as I did as I was then cooking the beef.
Don’t forget that if you reduce the quantity you’re cooking, the cooking time will reduce too, so do check on them a few times, see how they look to you, and always skewer at the end with a sharp knife to check they’re cooked right through.
Tip into a serving dish, spoon over the juices from the cooking pan and garnish with chopped fresh coriander leaves, if liked, and some wedges of lime.
Serve with potatoes as I did, or with a big bowl of steamed rice.
