Balinese Style Roast Chicken

One of my favourite places ever is Bali and I generally find myself on The Island Of The Gods, every other year. The flavours of Balinese cooking is both familiar (probably due to the spices used, which are similar with what we use in Malay and Indian recipes) yet distinct in its freshness and slight sweetness that comes from the liberal use of coconut milk, coconut sugar and grated coconut in many of its dishes.

Here is a simple yet flavourful recipe for roasting chicken that we particularly enjoy. Like many of our home-styled cooking, I do tend to verve on the spicy side, which is not very Balinese, therefore my use of the word 'style' in the title. Not to be confused with Ayam Bertutu, which often comes with stuffing or some gravy, this is a dry version that goes great with turmeric rice (I will post a separate recipe for this) or ghee rice and a side of sambal olek, sambal ikan bilis or any other sambal for an extra kick. Also serve it with an Asian inspired salad, a simple stir fried vegetable or just some sliced cucumber.

Ingredients (4 pax)

4 drumsticks skin on

4 thighs skin on (I like to half it if the pieces are large to suit smaller eaters like myself)

2 limes halved

a bunch of fresh coriander roughly chopped

Marinade for chicken (blend to a thick paste)

5-8 small Indian red shallots

4 garlics

2 cm ginger

6-8 red bird's eye chilli (chilli padi) or 2 tbsp kashmiri chilli powder

2 lemon grass (bottom part)

2 tbsp fish sauce

1 tsp coriander powder

1 tsp turmeric powder

2-3 tbsp of thick coconut milk

palm sugar & sea salt to taste

Method:

1. Cut slits into the chicken pieces and rub the marinade all over.

2. Leave for about 1-2 hours, although I like letting it go overnight.

3. Heat the oven to 200 celsius.

4. Line a baking tray with a baking paper and very lightly, oil it with coconut oil or any oil that you generally use although I would avoid olive oil.

5. Line the tray with the chicken pieces, skin down, but try to avoid having too much marinade on the chicken as we want a drier version. (refer to the picture above)

6. Slot in the lime halves around the tray.

7. Place the tray in the middle section of the oven and leave it for 40 minutes.

8. Remove the tray and flip over the pieces.

9. Continue to roast for another 20 minutes.

10. Remove the tray and remove the smaller pieces of chicken.

11. Roast the drumsticks for another 10 minutes.

12. Plate the roast chicken with lime, and a generous sprinkle of fresh coriander.

Serve as suggested above.