Sitting relaxed on your living room couch, binge watching Netflix on a Sunday is sure the best way to spend the day. I generally don’t try too hard to work in the kitchen on Sunday. And I don’t plan to wake up early too. All I want is to just sit in front of the TV and doing a movie marathon. So, I prefer to have something which I can easily toss up without it needing much of my attention. I would rather do some roasted vegetables, a quick sandwich or even simple Indian Dal Chawal meal. And on some days, while I want it to be a little fancy, I would do something like this peri peri roasted chicken. I am telling you, the chicken smothered with spicy tangy peri peri sauce, sitting easily in your roasting tin in the oven is not much of an attention seeker. And the best part is that it doesn’t take much of your time to get ready. In fact, you can prepare the sauce in advance and keep it in the fridge for a week. You just generously rub the whole chicken inside out with this spicy sauce, let it sit in the fridge for a while and then off into the oven. The crispy flavorful skin on the chicken just doubles up the taste and adds a nice look to the chicken. I prefer to cook it with a chicken with skin, but if you don’t like the skin or find it too fatty, you could even use a skinned one too. I cooked this chicken a couple of weekends ago, and it was good enough for me to get going for next couple of days. I ate it with some mash, in the salad and sandwiched between the bread slices. I felt so relaxed and sorted with this lovely chicken recipe I tried.
- 1 Kg whole chicken with skin
- 2 red bell peppers
- 4 tbsp olive oil, plus extra to drizzle
- 3 red chillies
- 1 tsp paprika
- 1/2 inch fresh ginger
- 5 garlic bulbs, halved horizontally
- 1/2 tsp caster sugar
- 2 tsp dried oregano
- 2 tbsp vinegar
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon powder
- 1/2 tsp cumin powder
- 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
- 5 to 6 lemons, halved horizontally
- salt to taste
- Preheat the oven to 220 degree C. Rub the red bell peppers with some olive oil and roast in a tray for about 20 minutes. Remove from oven, rub off the charred skin. Cut the peppers and remove the seeds. Put roasted peppers, olive oil, chillies, paprika, ginger, cloves from half a garlic bulb, oregano, vinegar, cinnamon powder, cumin powder, cayenne pepper and juice of one lemon and some salt in a blender and puree to make a smooth paste.
- Thoroughly coat the chicken on the outside and also in side of the cavity. Put a couple of garlic and lemon halves into the chicken cavity. Truss the chicken using a kitchen twine. Take a roasting pan or a cast iron skillet large enough for whole chicken. Spread the garlic and lemon halves in the pan cut side up. Place the chicken on top of garlic and lemon halves, breast side up. Cover the pan with a cling wrap and let sit in the fridge for 1 hour.
- Preheat the oven to 180 degree C. Remove the cling wrap from the pan. Drizzle with some more olive oil. Roast the chicken for about 45 minutes to 1 hour or until the chicken is cooked. Take out of the oven, lightly cover it with aluminum foil and let it rest for 10 minutes before serving.
I made this last week and it was phenomenal! I used the drippings to make gravy as well! So so delicious!