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