Oriental roast chicken with coconut gravy
With oriental spices and lime juice, this chicken recipe makes an interesting alternative to a traditional Sunday roast.
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp vegetable oil
- 2 tsp Thai spice blend or Chinese five-spice powder
- ½ tsp coarse salt
- Grated zest and juice of 1 lime, plus extra 1 lime, halved
- 1.5kg whole free-range chicken
- 2 lemongrass stalks, bruised
- 4 thick slices fresh ginger
- 2 lime leaves (look for Bart Spices dried lime leaves, from major supermarkets)
- 200g carton coconut cream
- 200ml chicken stock, hot
- 1 tbsp Thai red curry paste (we like Thai Taste, from most major supermarkets)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 200°C/fan180°C/gas 6. Mix together the oil, spice blend, salt and lime zest and juice to make a paste. Rub the mixture evenly onto the chicken skin.
- Pop the lime halves into the body cavity, along with the lemongrass, ginger and lime leaves. Sit in a roasting tin and roast for 1½ hours, until the chicken is cooked through. Tip any juices inside the body cavity into the tin, then lift the chicken onto a plate and rest for 5 minutes.
- Meanwhile, pour off the fat, then stir the coconut cream, stock and curry paste into the juices left in the tin, and cook in the oven for a further 5 minutes, until hot. Carve the chicken and serve with the coconut gravy and some steamed greens, such as pak choi, and rice.