Sesame Marinated Roast Chicken
This Sesame Marinated Roast Chicken is an incredible Sunday night dinner for the whole family. The chicken is mouth-watering and delicious, and the rice takes this dish over the top.
This recipe is inspired by Rosie Kellett’s Sesame Soy Roast Chicken recipe on her Substack, The Late Plate. Sign up for her Substack and follow her on Instagram here. You can also preorder her book, In for Dinner, here!
A Note From Teri on This Recipe
I cannot explain to you how unbelievably craveable this chicken recipe is. I saw the original recipe on an Instagram post from Rosie Kellett. Rosie is an amazing creator who shares incredible recipes on Substack, and I have loved following her on Instagram.
I don’t normally make something for the first time for guests, but I decided to with this dish. I thought it tasted so delicious. The perfect mix of sweet and smoky, and the bird gets so nicely browned. You serve it with this luscious ginger and scallion dressing, and it is simply a must do. You are going to fall in love with this roast chicken.
I liked the recipe so much that I knew I wanted to make it again and again. Roy and I put our own spin on this whole roast chicken for a Sunday lunch. It was so incredible, so I brought it back to the nocrumbsleft kitchen so we could create our own version! Rosie so kindly let us use her dish as the inspiration for this adapted recipe. It’s not a simple meal, but it’s the kind of recipe that’s made with so much love. There’s quite a bit of prep and it makes a bit of a disaster in the kitchen, but it is worth it.
How to Make Fried Rice with Leftovers
If you even have leftovers, you’re going to wake up so excited about it. You could make a really divine fried rice the next day. When rice cools in the fridge, the starch firms up, which makes it the perfect texture for frying. If you use warm rice, it will get too mushy in the pan. We basically don’t even invite guests over when we make this recipe so we know we will have some leftovers for fried rice.
Ingredients
For the marinade:
- Tamari
- Rice wine vinegar
- Toasted sesame oil
- Brown sugar
- Five spice
- Star anise
- Spring onions
- Ginger, peeled and grated
For the chicken:
- Whole chicken
- Kosher salt
- Sesame seeds
- Butter
- Dry vermouth
For the ginger & scallion sauce:
- Scallions
- Ginger
- Ground white pepper
- Salt
- Neutral flavored high-heat oil
For the multigrain rice:
- 1 cup white jasmine rice
- ½ cup quinoa
- 1 ½ cup chicken stock
- ¾ cup coconut milk
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- 3 tablespoons sesame seeds, toasted
How to Make This Sesame Roasted Chicken
Prep Your Marinade and Chicken
Prepare the chicken marinade by whisking together the tamari, rice wine vinegar, toasted sesame oil, brown sugar, five spice, star anise, spring onions, and grated ginger in a bowl.
Salt the chicken then place it in a plastic bag. Pour the marinade into the bag then seal the bag tightly – removing as much air from the bag as possible. Massage the marinade into the chicken to get it all over. Fold the bag over and place into a second freezer bag to prevent any spillage. Refrigerate overnight, flipping the bag a couple of times while it is marinating.
When you’re ready to cook the chicken, preheat the oven to 425F and allow the chicken to sit at room temperature for 60 minutes.
Holding the bag over a bowl, make a small puncture in it to drain the marinade, reserving it in the bowl. Place the chicken in a cast-iron pan, braiser, or baking dish and place the butter cubes over the breasts and behind the legs and wings. You can put a couple of cubes in the chicken! Pour the reserved marinade over the chicken and sprinkle with sesame seeds.
Roast Chicken and Make Rice
Cook the chicken on the center rack. At 20 minutes, add a ¼ cup of vermouth to the baking dish, scrape the dish and stir the liquids together as best you can, and baste the chicken with the juices. Rotate the pan and continue cooking, basting every 20 minutes, adding an additional ¼ cup of vermouth at 60 minutes. (Basically, you want to end up with enough beautiful pan juices to reduce into a gravy in the end. If the pan is too dry after adding the ½ cup of vermouth, you can add another splash.)
Cook the chicken to an internal temperature of 165F, about an hour and a half to an hour and 40 minutes. I don’t use one, but if you would like you can use an instant-read thermometer to check the thickest part of the thigh. If the skin starts to get too dark, tent the chicken with foil.
In the last 15 minutes the chicken is cooking, prepare the rice. Combine the rice with the quinoa, rinse well until the water runs clear. Add to a pot with the coconut milk and chicken stock, and bring it to a boil over high heat. Cover the pot and reduce to a simmer. Cook for 20-25 minutes or until all the liquid is absorbed. When the quinoa-rice is done, turn the heat off and fluff with a fork. Cover with the lid and leave on the stove.
Make Sauce and Assemble Dish
Once the chicken is finished roasting, remove from the oven and allow it to rest on a board with a well for 15 minutes. Check the juices at the bottom of the roasting pan and if they are burned in the oven, strain them into a saucepan. If nothing looks burnt, simply add the juices to the saucepan and make a gravy by simmering the juices while the chicken is resting until it is reduced by one quarter. If any juices have collected on the board with chicken, add these juices to the saucepan as well.
For the sauce, combine the minced scallions, grated ginger, ground white pepper and salt into a heat- proof bowl. Heat the light olive oil until sizzling hot and then pour over the other ingredients. It will bubble up initially, after it simmers down, stir to combine.
When the chicken is rested, carve the chicken.
To serve, tip the rice out onto a platter, scatter the toasted sesame seeds on top, then spoon some of the scallion-ginger sauce over it and lightly stir it in. Place the chicken over rice and serve the remaining scallion-ginger sauce and tamari-sesame gravy on the side.
Storage and Reheating
Store leftover chicken and rice in the fridge for up to four days. I love to enjoy the chicken cold in salads or sandwiches, or even by itself. The rice is amazing for a fried rice lunch the next day.
Try These Other Roast Chicken Recipes
If you make this Sesame Marinated Roast Chicken recipe, be sure to rate and review the recipe to let me know what you think. And if you want to follow along, head to Instagram, TikTok, and Pinterest for more inspiration!
Print
Sesame Marinated Roast Chicken
- Prep Time: 25 minutes
- Marinating Time: Overnight
- Cook Time: 1 hr 40 minutes
- Total Time: 2 hr 5 min
- Yield: 6 servings
- Category: Dinner
- Method: Oven
Description
This roast chicken is an unbelievably delicious meal.
Ingredients
For the marinade:
- 3 tablespoons tamari
- 2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
- 2 tablespoons toasted sesame oil
- 2 tablespoons brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon five spice
- 4 star anise whole
- 3 spring onions, cut into 2 ½ inch pieces
- 1 thumb sized piece of ginger, peeled and grated
For the chicken:
- 1 5-pound whole chicken
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt
- 2 tablespoons sesame seeds
- 7 tablespoons butter, cut into ½ inch cubes
- ½ cup vermouth, plus more if needed
For the ginger & scallion sauce:
- 3 scallions, finely minced
- 1 large piece of ginger, peeled and microplaned
- 1 teaspoon ground white pepper
- a pinch of salt
- 8 tablespoons neutral flavored high-heat oil (we used light olive oil)
For the multigrain rice:
- 1 cup white jasmine rice
- ½ cup quinoa
- 1 ½ cup chicken stock
- ¾ cup coconut milk
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- 3 tablespoons sesame seeds, toasted
Instructions
- Prepare the marinade by whisking together the tamari, rice wine vinegar, toasted sesame oil, brown sugar, five spice, star anise, spring onions, and grated ginger in a bowl.
- Salt the chicken then place it in a freezer bag. Pour the marinade into the bag then seal the bag tightly – removing as much air from the bag as possible. Massage the marinade into the chicken to get it all over. Fold the bag over and place into a second freezer bag to prevent any spillage. Refrigerate overnight, flipping the bag a couple of times while it is marinating.
- When you’re ready to cook the chicken, preheat the oven to 425F and allow the chicken to sit at room temperature for 60 minutes.
- Holding the bag over a bowl, make a small puncture in it to drain the marinade, reserving it in the bowl. Place the chicken in a cast-iron pan, braiser, or baking dish and place the butter cubes over the breasts and behind the legs and wings. You can put a couple of cubes in the chicken! Pour the reserved marinade over the chicken and sprinkle with sesame seeds.
- Cook the chicken on the center rack. At 20 minutes, add a ¼ cup of vermouth to the baking dish, scrape the dish and stir the liquids together as best you can, and baste the chicken with the juices. Rotate the pan and continue cooking, basting every 20 minutes, adding an additional ¼ cup of vermouth at 60 minutes. (Basically, you want to end up with enough beautiful pan juices to reduce into a gravy in the end. If the pan is too dry after adding the ½ cup of vermouth, you can add another splash.) Cook the chicken to an internal temperature of 165F, about an hour and a half to an hour and 40 minutes. If the skin starts to get too dark, tent the chicken with foil.
- In the last 15 minutes the chicken is cooking, prepare the rice. Combine the rice with the quinoa, rinse well until the water runs clear. Add to a pot with the coconut milk and chicken stock, and bring it to a boil over high heat. Cover the pot and reduce to a simmer. Cook for 20-25 minutes or until all the liquid is absorbed. When the quinoa-rice is done, turn the heat off and fluff with a fork. Cover with the lid and leave on the stove.
- Once the chicken is finished roasting, remove from the oven and allow it to rest on a board with a well for 15 minutes. Check the juices at the bottom of the roasting pan and if they are burned in the oven, strain them into a saucepan. If nothing looks burnt, simply add the juices to the saucepan and make a gravy by simmering the juices while the chicken is resting until it is reduced by one quarter. If any juices have collected on the board with chicken, add these juices to the saucepan as well.
- For the sauce, combine the minced scallions, grated ginger, ground white pepper and salt into a heat- proof bowl. Heat the light olive oil until sizzling hot and then pour over the other ingredients. It will bubble up initially, after it simmers down, stir to combine.
- When the chicken is rested, carve the chicken.
- To serve, tip the rice out onto a platter, scatter the toasted sesame seeds on top, then spoon some of the scallion-ginger sauce over it and lightly stir it in. Place the chicken over rice and serve the remaining scallion-ginger sauce and tamari-sesame gravy on the side.
Notes
If you save the bones from this dish, they will make the loveliest chicken stock.
Nutrition
- Serving Size:
- Calories: 483
- Sugar: 3.6 g
- Sodium: 606.5 mg
- Fat: 20 g
- Carbohydrates: 33.7 g
- Protein: 37.1 g
- Cholesterol: 98.9 mg
Hi there! Love all your recipes. Had a question, is there any type of substitute for vermouth?
I really recommend having vermouth in your kitchen as a staple! It adds great depth of flavor to the dish but in a pinch if you don’t have any on hand, I think you can try substituting it with dry white wine or a little chicken stock for this recipe.
So excited for this! I’ve not cooked with star anise before. I just made the chicken marinade and am letting it sit before I whisk – should I be aiming to break down the whole star anise or is it okay if they stay “whole” and go into the bag with the chicken to sit overnight?
Great article!The article is very interesting. Let me reply and leave a trace. https://www.82live.com/
Top flavors!!! Thank you for all the amazing recipes. In my oven, 220°C was a bit too high, and it was toasting too quickly, so I adjusted to 200°C and placed it on the bottom rack instead of the middle. It turned out really nice and offered a totally different style of roast.
I have to say, the way Teri describes this Sesame Marinated Roast Chicken makes me want to try it right away! It’s not only mouth-watering but also seems perfect for using as leftovers in fried rice. A clean, professional AI Watermark Remover could really help make my recipe photos look even better!
I made this for the first time last night and wow — I get the hype now. It’s insanely craveable. The sweet-smoky subway surfers flavor, that deeply browned skin, and the ginger-scallion dressing on top… unreal. Definitely one of those “why haven’t I been making this forever?” roast chicken recipes.