I thought we will have steak for dinner tonight with a creamy mushroom sauce so I popped into SS to buy the ingredients. I was surprised to see an Australian butcher there conducting training for our local butchers.
He had prepared some really interesting marinated cuts of chicken & beef, and I was quite fascinated by this ball of boneless chicken. One of the butchers told me that they had stuffed garlic butter inside and dusted paprika on the outside. They had tied the chicken with some elastic heat proof string. Very, very interesting - I love the shape so I decided to buy it and have it for dinner tonight instead of steak - it costs $9.90 and weighed about 1 kg and a bit.
It measures about 6 inches in diameter and to get it tender and juicy inside, without drying out the outside or burning the skin would be an interesting challenge, I thought.
Before I put it into the oven, I added extra seasoning (as I would) - salt & black pepper on the skin, some olive oil and onions. Here it is before it went into the pre-heated oven.
After 20 mins, I lowered the heat to mark 6 (earlier 8), and took it out for basting. The skin had already browned nicely so I cut a piece of foil and covered the surface and popped it back into the oven. At this point, I added a tablespoons of light soy over the chicken.
An extra 10 minutes later, here is the chicken. Looks done but the inside was still at room temp (there is a way to check without using a meat thermometer) so it's definitely a long way from being done. So it went back under its foil tent and was returned back to the oven.
I basted it at regular intervals of 10 mins and after an hour and 15 minutes, I pierced a skewer into its centre to check for doneness. The juices ran clear and the inside very hot so I knew it was done. Here it is, resting for 15 minutes before being carved.
I removed the elastic strings and here is the first cut - success - it was perfectly cooked, still tender and juicy with not a hint of dryness.
The skin was crispy and golden brown - the onions had caramelised and were crispy and so sweet.
Next post - making the sauce, bursting with fat mushrooms. Also panfried brinjals and sauteed garlic rosemary potatoes.
I hope you enjoy this chicken post!
2 comments:
I was already sold when I read the part about stuffed garlic butter in this boneless bird. Looks fantastic, I'm sure it tastes just as good.
DBS, I must have put on 1 kg last weekend and this I am sure was part of the reason! E.
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