My Lemony Chicken

Please excuse my grubby looking chicken. It was unplanned. This roast chicken came about due to a failed bake (the one that ended up buried in the compost bin).

I had prepared a lemon syrup for the cake but unfortunately the cake turned out hard, dry and gritty. You might be wondering what cake is that. But let me keep you in suspense because I will reattempt this cake. Success or failure, you will hear my story.

Lemon syrup.

I was disappointed of course, who wouldn't be. What was I going to do with the lemon syrup? Surely I was not going to throw it away because lemons don't come cheap in this part of the world. I had juiced 2 or 3 lemons for the syrup. So I poured the syrup into a container and stashed it into the fridge. 

I had defrosted a small chicken and the next day, I thought why not make a roast chicken using the lemon syrup as marinade. Waste not! I had half a cup of lemon syrup (which tasted fantastic by the way) and to that I added minced garlic and light soya sauce. I had a taste. Wow! Nice! There was no necessity to add anything else and it was best to keep it simple.

I cut the chicken into two halves and let it marinate for only 2 hours (I usually like to marinate overnight but this was a spur of the moment thing). Then I roasted the chicken for 40 minutes, basting every 10-15 minutes. I did burn my chicken a little bit. After the chicken was done roasting, I took it out to rest. I took a spoon and tasted the roasting juices which had turned syrupy. It was good. Very good! Sweet, sour, salty, garlicky and lemony. I was happy that the lemon syrup did not go to waste and I had myself a very tasty roasted chicken. 

Lemony Roasted Chicken

Recipe source : Phong Hong

Ingredients :

- 1 whole chicken

To make the marinade, mix together :

- 1/2 cup lemon syrup (recipe below)

- 4 tablespoons light soya sauce

- 4 cloves garlic, finely minced
- some black pepper

To make lemon syrup :

1. In a saucepan mix 1/2 cup lemon juice with 1/2 cup castor sugar and rind from one lemon.

2. Place on the stove over low heat and stir until sugar dissolves.

3. Bring to a boil and boil for 5 minutes.
4. Cool before using.

Note : Alternatively if you don't want to make the lemon syrup. I reckon lemon juice with honey would work just fine. Then you have yourself a honey lemon chicken :)

Method :

1. Marinate chicken with the marinade for 2 hours or more.

2. Place chicken, skin side down on a lined roasting pan and roast at 180C.

3. After 15 minutes, turn the chicken over and baste. Continue to baste every 10-15 minutes until chicken is cooked (mine took 40 minutes).