Roasted Chicken

My media noche menu was planned only 2 days before the occasion.  Roasted chicken was part of the list which I initially thought of buying a ready cooked one. But then…I felt hayati prefers roasting our own chicken so I took out my apprehension of ending up with an awful dish.

It was not my first roasting experience but my first attempt to roast a whole chicken… I was so delighted with the outcome – a tasty, juicy perfectly roasted chicken! Glad I changed my mind and decided to cook instead of buying a cooked one.

Ingredients:

• 1 kg whole chicken
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, at room temperature
• Salt & ground black pepper
• 1 medium onion, cut into quarters
• 1/2 lemon
• 3 cloves garlic,peeled
• 1 teaspoon thyme (use fresh thyme if available)
• 2 medium size potatoes, cut about 1-1/2 inch cubes.
• 1 tablespoon olive oil

Direction:

1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees.
2. Clean the chicken, removing the giblets and excess fat from the cavity. Wash thoroughly and pat dry with paper towels.
3. Sprinkle generous amount of salt & pepper, both outside and in the cavity.
4. Spread the softened butter over the entire surface of the chicken.  Lift the skin to separate it from the breast meat, then rub butter in between. 
5. Put in the garlic cloves and slice of lemon in the cavity.  Make an incision on the skin covering the cavity and tuck in the legs crosswise.  Sprinkle some more salt & pepper.
6. In a roasting pan, arrange the onion and potatoes. Add salt, pepper and olive oil.  Place chicken in the roasting pan, over the bed of onion & potatoes.  Cover with aluminum foil and bake for half an hour.  Uncover and roast further for 1 hour until the skin turns golden brown. The chicken should be done if the juice runs clear when pierced.
7. Let it rest for 10 minutes before cutting.

And there we had a perfect roasted chicken served in our media noche table!!!  Happy New Year!

Lunch in a Bag

If there’s one thing I learn from watching Jamie Oliver’s shows, that’s cooking simple..

Thursday night, saw a replay of his cooking show sharing the use of bag (foil paper) in cooking a meal.  I went to bed with the thought of trying to use this method in the coming day.

Friday…cooking time for the planned recipe. I gathered the following ingredients..as Jamie said, you can put any veggies you want.

• > 1/4 kg Hammour fillet (just enough for me & big bro)
• > 100 grams button mushrooms, just slice into 4
• > 1 small can green peas, drained
• > 1 medium tomato, thinly sliced
• >  Olive oil
• >  Part of lemon, 3 thin slices
• >  Onion leaves 
• >  Salt & Pepper
• >  Foil

 Fold the foil into bag-like shape, sealing the edges by pressing gently.

Season the fish with salt and pepper. Dash with little bit of olive oil as well. Put into the foil bag and arrange the lemon slices on top of the fish.

In a bowl, put all the vegetables, sprinkle with salt, pepper  and about 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Toss to coat all the vegetables then put inside the foil bag.

Seal the opening of the bag by folding 4 times. Press gently to ensure tight closure.

Cook this into 200-220 degree oven for about 20 minutes.

 

 

 

You may eat straight from the opened bag or transfer in a serving dish.

I was delighted with the outcome of the dish. The fish was perfectly cooked on its own juice and from the vegetable steam. So simple, fulfilling dish and no mess to wash up.  :) :) with my accomplishment today.