Garlic and Salt Roasted Chicken

This is the most basic of roasted chicken with only 4 ingredients for the marinade. Easy and yet so tasty.

What I did was basically pound a whole bulb of garlic with  a teaspoon of sea salt and peppercorns. Then I added olive oil to the pounded paste and gave it a good stir. I enjoy stirring stuff. It's therapeutic. 

While that was happening, my chicken was sitting pretty on the colander. I had given it a good bath.

I took some paper towels and dabbed the chicken to take off the excess moisture. All that time, I was sweating away in my hot kitchen. I couldn't wait to escape to the cool recesses of my study room.

Then I gave the chicken a good rub down with the garlic paste. Drat! My garlic paste was not as fine as I thought it was. I should have pounded a bit more for a smoother paste.  

I left the chicken to stand for about an hour or so since it was still cold (just bought from Aeon). Then it was time to roast!

I placed the chicken on a rack which I placed inside a lined metal tray. That metal tray came with the Poon Choi that my brother and sister-in-law tapau on Chinese New Year eve. I kept the tray because I knew one day it would come in handy.

For my future reference, I am putting this photo here, although I have misgivings showing you my dirty well used oven. I placed a metal rack on the glass turntable and then placed the roasting tray on top of it.

This way, my chicken will rotate while it is roasting, resulting in even cooking. Besides, it won't get burnt because it is on the lowest level in the oven. 

I also took the trouble to tie the chicken legs together for better presentation.

I roasted the chicken for one hour at 180C. After it was done, I left it on the oven for a further 5 minutes for it to continue to brown a little bit more.

After resting the chicken for 30 minutes, I started to carve it. Our local chicken suffers from water retention just like I do. So much water oozed out onto the cutting board. That's why when I cook chicken, I either add very little water or no water at all because I know it will bleed water.

The skin was very crispy and I could smell the combination of garlic and salt, which is a very good smell. I couldn't help pulling off the wings and enjoying right there and then. It was so good! Crispy skin and moist flesh. Then I pulled off the....errr.....backside. Equally good!

The crispy browned garlic bits were very nice to bite into. Well, sometimes simple is good. And this roasted chicken is good enough proof.

Garlic and Salt Roasted Chicken

Recipe source : Phong Hong

Ingredients :

- 1 whole chicken (about 1.4kg)

- 1 large bulb garlic, peeled

- 1 tsp sea salt

- 1 tsp white peppercorns

- 3 tbsp olive oil and more for drizzling

Method :

1. Clean the chicken and pat dry.

2. Using a mortar and pestle, pound the garlic, salt and peppercorn until fine to form a paste.

3. Add olive oil to the paste and mix to combine.

4. Rub the garlic paste all over the chicken including the cavity.

5. Place chicken on a rack placed inside a lined roasting pan.

6.  Drizzle some olive oil onto the chicken.

7. Roast at 180C for 1 hour or until chicken is cooked and browned.

This post is linked to the event Bake Along #93 (Baked/Roasted Chicken) organized by Zoe of Bake for Happy Kids, Joyce of Kitchen Flavours and Lena of Frozen Wings.