Weekend Dinner #6: Roasted Chile-Lime Chicken
My return to the kitchen had me meeting with an old foe: the roasting/fryer chicken. You know the whole chicken where you have to clean it out? Yeah, that one. I’ve tried to do it once before and eventually girl’d out and had my mom take care of it for me. This time she offered from the get go but I wanted to do it so I just had her stand nearby to supervise.
I tried. I really did. I was doing well until I realized that the bird was still a little frozen on the inside and that would require me to dig my nails into it to loosen the little bits and pieces and the thought of having chicken organs underneath my nails grossed me out. That and the water was ice cold since, you know, it was frozen.
But I switched on and off with my mom and eventually got the whole bird cleaned out. Ugh. Maybe next time I’ll just skip the whole bird and just use chicken pieces. That seems a whole lot easier.
Anywho, it took longer than the recipe said to roast all the way through but it was delicious. I got a little fancy and made garlic-parmesan smashed potatoes [no need for a recipe…just some potatoes, a teaspoon for minced garlic, some shredded parmesan and milk to the appropriate consistency] and roasted asparagus with a balsalmic browned butter sauce.
Yeah I got even fancier. But even that is ridiculously easy to make: two tablespoons butter melted until it turns a golden brown [and there you have browned butter. Seriously]. Then you take it off the stove and add two teaspoons of soy sauce, 1 teaspoon of balsamic vinegar and some salt and pepper to taste. It’s slightly sweet but good.
Roasted Chile-Lime Chicken
by Aida Mollenkamp
1 (5 pound) chicken
5 medium serrano chiles, seeded and finely chopped [I used two serrano and two jalapeno peppers]
5 medium garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice
5 teaspoons kosher salt
1 tablespoon freshly grated lime zest
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1) Heat oven to 400 degrees F and arrange a rack in the middle. Pat chicken dry with paper towels. Remove necks and any innards from the cavities and discard.
2) To spatchcock, use a sharp pair of poultry shears or kitchen scissors to cut along the backbone; remove and discard. Place chicken, breast-side up, and press down to flatten it to it is lying completely flat.
3) Combine remaining ingredients in a small bowl and mix until evenly combined. Season and adjust flavor as desired. Loosen the skin from the breast and legs of the chicken and, using your clean hands, spread 1/2 of the mixture underneath. Rub the remaining mixture all over the outside of the chicken. Set aside while oven heats up, at least 20 minutes.
4) Lay chicken in a roasting pan or baking dish fitted with a rack and roast until cooked an instant read thermometer inserted into the thigh registers 165 degrees F, about 50 to 60 minutes; let sit at least 10 minutes before carving. Quick note: the recipe says 50 – 60 minutes but its usually taken me longer than 60 minutes to reach 165 degrees so I highly suggest relying on temperature to determine doneness. It doesn’t have to be at 165 on the dot since the internal temp will continue to rise a little bit while it’s resting.
We had some leftovers which I used to make a killer chicken with spaghetti. And instead of using a marinara sauce, which would have been way too heavy with the flavors of the chicken, I made a lemon garlic olive oil sauce. No recipe here either, besides tossing in about a ½ cup of olive oil [which should have been a ¼ cup], one clove of minced garlic [we use a lot of garlic so my mom minces everything up, freezes and cuts into cubes that are roughly a teaspoon of garlic]. Delicious.
But I’m definitely making this again. In fact, I want to make it again since I figured this would be a great dish to make the next time the bf tells me he told his mom we’d cook for her next time I’m visiting.
Ace up the sleeve!