There’s not many nude, hairless bodies that I’m comfortable with, but hand me a naked, raw chicken and I’m as relaxed as I’ll ever be. I’ve always found something oddly satisfying about fingering the pimply skin and shoving half a lemon up a dead animal’s butt hole – not in a weird way. For years I’d roasted my trusted version of garlic butter basted chicken and plated it up for housemates, best friends and boyfriends a like. Until, that is, I decided unwittingly that butter was to be avoided at all costs and any chicken consumed had to be followed by 24 hours of near starvation. When recovery came about and, with that, my increased preference for poultry, I’d be damned if I was to return back to boring, old lemon breast.
A culmination of my ever-expanding spice cupboard and the resurgence of my dietary repertoire led me to explore all sorts of flavours and ingredients that could jazz up my favourite meat. Barbecue very quickly became one of my favourites – the moist meat sliding off the bones every time. Succulent, juicy breast meat on top; and flavoursome, tangy, melt-in-your-mouth dark meat on the bottom. And then there’s the sauce…
Feel free to substitute brown sugar for more honey, and wholegrain mustard for american/english; the resulting flavour won’t be too different, it’s simply this flavour combination that I find creates the best sticky, crispy skin. Which reminds me – if you don’t eat the skin, you’re missing out m8.
INGREDIENTS
Whole chicken
Garlic (2 bulbs)
Cumin Seeds (2 tsp)
Smoked Paprika (2 tsp)
Salt & Pepper
Honey (1 tbsp)
Olive Oil (2 tsp plus more for drizzling)
Small knob of butter
Worcester Sauce (3 tsp)
Balsamic Vinegar (3 tsp)
Brown sugar (15g)
Tomato Puree (a big squeeze)
Wholegrain Mustard (1 tbsp)
1 Orange or Clementine
Red Onions (2) *optional
METHOD
5. Roughly chop two red onions (optional), place them onto a large baking dish and drizzle with olive oil. Sit the chicken on top of the onions, add a big splash of water and roast in the oven for 1.5 – 2 hours at 180°c.
