Roast chicken joints with Thai dressing and jasmine rice
Chicken
Roast chicken joints with Thai dressing and jasmine rice
Jointing a chicken is fairly easy, and this way the joints are all cooked to perfection as roasting the bird whole sacrifices a moist, juicy breast meat for the sake of a fully cooked leg. If you have the chicken quarters, keep the quantities the same but pad it out with a bit more veg and salad. Steamed sugar snaps, French beans and asparagus would all be perfect.
Ingredients
main
- 1.6kg chicken or 800g chicken quarters
- olive oil
for the rice
- 200ml jasmine rice
- splash olive oil
- 200ml coconut milk
- 225ml water
- 1 tsp salt
for the dressing
- 3 tbsp coriander, finely chopped
- 3cm fresh ginger, peeled and finely grated
- 1 hot green chilli, deseeded and finely sliced
- 1 lime, zested and juiced
- 1 garlic clove, crushed
- 75ml sunflower oil
Method
main
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Step 1
If you have the whole chicken, cut it into four quarters, leaving the breasts on the bone. This will keep the fillets juicy. To do this, place the bird on a wooden cutting board, front end to the left (assuming you're right handed). Starting from the rear end of the breast, take a large knife and cut to the left, slightly downwards, towards the wings, beneath the breast. You should be able to easily cut through the thin ribs joining the breast plate. Turn the pair of breasts over and separate by cutting through the bone lengthways. With the legs, press downwards or to loosen the joint where the thigh meets the carcass and separate with a thin knife. Separate the drumsticks and wings (from the breasts) and cut each breast in two. You will probably need to tidy up the breasts and cut away surplus fat and skin from the thighs. Once you've done it a few times, it's easy. There are loads of videos on the internet but they all take the breast off the bone which isn't what we want here.
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Step 2
Now preheat oven to 220°C/Gas Mark 7. Brush the leg and wing pieces with olive oil, then season and place on a roasting tray. Cook for 15 minutes then remove from the oven. Brush the skin of the breasts with oil, season and place alongside the legs on the tray, skin side up, and return to the oven for a further 25 minutes. By this time all the pieces should be golden brown and cooked through. Once the breasts have gone into the oven alongside the legs, it is time to cook the rice.
Fry the rice
-
Step 1
in a little oil for a minute, add the coconut milk, water and salt, bring to the boil, stir once, lid and cook as slowly as possible for 15 minutes.
Mix the dressing
-
Step 1
ingredients together in a bowl. Fluff up and divide the rice between the plates, top with a joint of roasted chicken, spoon over the dressing and serve.
