Pot Roast Chicken

This is Vietnamese pot roast chicken made by a recipe from Gizzy Erskine. 

Ingredients for 4 persons:

• 1 tsp ground nut oil
• 5 cloves garlic
• 3cm fresh root ginger, peeled
• 1-2 Thai birds eye chillies
• 1/2tsp turmeric
• 3-4 Kaffir lime leaves, sliced
• a small bunch coriander, finely chopped
• sea salt & freshly ground black pepper
• 1 large whole chicken
• 300ml Asian beer
• 400ml fresh chicken stock
• 1tbsp fish sauce
• 1tbsp palm sugar
• boiled rice, to serve
• pak choi, to serve

This is how to make it:

Place the garlic, ginger, chillies, turmeric, lime leaves, coriander, oil, salt & pepepr into a food processor and blitz until it becomes a smooth paste.

With your hands gently rub under the skin of the chicken to detach it from the carcass then rub the marinade all over the chicken, and underneath the skin of the chicken. Leave to marinate for at least two hours but the longer you leave it the better it will taste so doing it for the full 24 hours would be the most ideal.

Heat the oven to 200C. Place the chicken into a deep Dutch oven casserole dish. Cover with beer, stock, fish sauce and palm sugar, pop the lid on and roast in the oven for 30 minutes. After 30 mins remove the lid and finish baking with the lid off for another 30-40 mins or until the chicken is cooked through. Remove from the oven then leave to rest for 15 mins.

Remove the chicken from the pot. There should be about an inch of sauce in the pan. Carve the chicken and serve with boiled rice and pak choi with the sauce poured over.

ps. the lime leaves can be store in a freezer. 

While the chicken is in the oven, there's good time to make a salad...

Bon appetit!

Gizzi Erskine is a British chef and award winning cookery writer for Sunday Times magazine.