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Chulet’s Roast Chicken

03 Thursday Apr 2014

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I love a good home made roast chicken. It’s quite easy to make and the best part is there’s no right or wrong. Everyone have their own formula for succulent roast chicken. For me, a good roast chicken should never be over marinated. I prefer to be able to still enjoy the fresh sweetness of the chicken.

It might be easy to make but it doesn’t make it less tedious. First thing is to CLEAN the chicken. Don’t think that just because you bought it nicely wrapped from the supermarket means it’s clean. Remove all feathers and all debris sticking to the skin. If you look closely, the yellowish ‘skin-like’ debris is usually under the wings or along the inner thigh. Once it’s clean, I like to give the chicken a good salt scrub. It’s sort of like exfoliating the skin. Rinse off the salt after that. You will definitely feel a big difference to the skin. It’s so much smoother.

After that, pat dry the chicken.

Prepare separate small bowls of salt, pepper, herbs,  5 cloves of crushed garlic and 2 bay leaves. For the herbs, I just throw in a mix of dried herbs like rosemary, thyme, oregano and basil. (It’s quite flexible. You can put in anything you like. Personally, I will not skip thyme. It goes amazingly well with chicken!)

Grab the salt with your 5 fingers and sprinkle it all over the chicken evenly. Always sprinkle it higher than 15cm to get the even spread. Do the same with pepper. Ensure you salt and pepper well the inside of the chicken as well. Next, I rub the dry herbs on the palm of my hand first to release the fragrance and oil before rubbing it onto the chicken. Remember the inside too! Throw in the crushed garlic into the chicken tummy. Stuff a lemon inside to hold the chicken’s shape which roasting at the same time releasing a beautiful aroma soaking into the chicken. Before you stuff the lemon, wash it really well and give the surface a good prick.

I thrust my chicken here because it looks so much prettier and inviting. 😉

The chefs on TV make it look so EASY. But, it’s not if it’s your first time. Don’t panic. Just make sure you manage to close the legs together to push up the breast, sort of like giving the chicken a wonderbra effect. LOL…  Ready to cook

I like to place the chicken on a bed of sliced onion. This way, the chicken skin will not stick to the bottom and or have a soggy look on the bottom. I like to cover the chicken and allow it to steam for a good 40 mins at 170 degreeC first. As you can see the chicken looks so moist here.

After 30mins steaming

Then, I remove the cover and let it roast for another 30 mins  to allow the surface to dry and the skin to slowly turn golden. When the skin is sufficiently dried out, I’ll lightly brush a layer of butter all over the chicken. This gives it a beautiful shiny look. I’ll roast it again for another 20 mins at 200 degree C.

Tada… my home made roast chicken.

Tada - Ready for nom nom Side profileOh… one more thing. Do not throw away the lemon. Slice it to half and squeeze the juice out together with the roasting juice. It is AWESOME !!!

Please note that the cooking time varies depending on your chicken size. My chicken here was about 1.2kg. I used the Kami Sakura chicken which is about RM20 /bird. It’s a bit on the expensive side. But, I like the taste and texture of this chicken… 🙂 The chicken is not raise in cage but not entirely free-range. You can read more about this chicken online.

Stir fried Scallops with baby Bak-Choy pasta.

21 Friday Sep 2012

Posted by in Gastronomy, Home Cook Food

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Hub and I went to Kuala Selangor over the weekend and bought some really big fat frozen scallops. Kuala Selangor is a little fishing town about one hour plus away from Kuala Lumpur (famous for enjoying fresh seafood at lower price).

It’s really simple to handle frozen scallops. I just took them out from the freezer, give it a good rinse and let it thaw by itself for about 15-20 mins. After that, I give it another good rise and pat dry. (Never soak your frozen scallops in water as it will loose it’s sweetness)

Ingredients (3 person’s portion)
  • 12 nos             Scallops (sprinkle with salt and black pepper)
  • 4 bunch           baby bak-choy (separate the leaves from stem)
  • 15 nos             cherry tomatoes (halved)
  • 4 slices            bacon (julienne)
  • ½ cup              marsala wine / white wine
  • 1 tbsp              Abalone sauce
  • 1 tbsp              pre-fried garlic (I keep one jar of fried garlic in oil around)
  • 3 portion         boiled Spaghetti
     
    Sauté the scallops on high heat and remember to keep them apart (no soup formed. Or you’ll have steam scallops in the end). It’s always better to have scallops slightly undercooked. So, I manage them by pressing on them with the spoon. I like it cooked till it feels like medium rare beef bounce. Then, I’ll lift it and set it aside.
     
    Next, sauté the bacon till you see the oil release from its fat. Put in the bak-choy stem and allow it to stir fry a bit first before putting in the leaves. Add the cherry tomatoes, abalone sauce and Marsala wine (You can just use any white wine but I love the sweetness of Marsala with scallops). Allow this to simmer for 2-3 minutes.

Add the pasta and Scallop. Simmer for another 2-3 minutes and it’s done.

Dinner is serve. Chomp chomp. I had it with a glass of chilled marsala. Simple healthy meal with tons of greens. Yay !

Stir Fry Spaghetti with Roasted Pumpkin and Chicken

27 Wednesday Jun 2012

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This is actually the 3rd quarter of the whole pumpkin. The 2nd quarter was use to make the same dish as the 1st quarter. (It was such a success the first round, I thought I replicate it for the second time)

Since I did Chinese for the first 2 quarter, I thought of doing something western for the 3rd. I was pretty tired this week, so, the recipe needs to be something really simple and what could be simpler than good ol’ pasta dish.

Ingredients (for 3 portions)
  • 200gm mince chicken
  • ¼ Pumpkin diced to small cube
  • 5 cloves garlic (chopped finely)
  • 3 cloves garlic (Sliced)
  • 3 portion of spaghetti
  • 1 tsp tomato paste
Marinate for the chicken (5 minutes),
  • 1 tsp Oyster sauce
  • ½ tsp Soya sauce
  • Dash of Oregano, Rosemary and Basil (dry herbs)
  • Sprinkle over some Salt and pepper

Boil the spaghetti. Remember to salt your water and drizzle with oil. Cook till slightly less than al dente. (We will need to stir fry it again later)

Spread the diced pumpkin evenly. Drizzle with olive oil and mix in the sliced garlic. Roast in oven for about 15-20 minutes (depending on how soft you want you pumpkin to get).

While waiting for these 2 things above to be done, I manage to throw in our laundry for washing. Yay !!!

Once the spag is ready, drained and let it cool.

In the same pot, I add olive oil and the chopped garlic. Throw in the tomato paste and mince chicken. Fry till cook. Throw in the roasted pumpkin. Add half cup of water. Give it a good stir and then simmer for about 5 minutes. Add the Spag in and stir well. Off the fire and allow the pasta to sit in the hot pot for about 5-10 minutes before serving. (I find that this allows the mild sweetness of the pumpkin to soak into the spag)

Serve with some greens and heaps of parmesan shavings. Viola … Simple light and delicious meal in a bowl !!!