Roast Chicken on a bed of vegetables.....served with butter rice

The success and satisfaction of a job well done, egged me onto to try out a simpler chicken roast unencumbered by a deluge of ingredients and sauces. While at it, habit led me to google and amongst the various Chicken roast recipes, it was this recipe  which appealed to me due to its simplicity and ready availability of all ingredients....of course slight changes, modifications were made here and there.

So here goes my version...

Ingredients :

Whole chicken with skin on - 1.4 kg

Rock Salt

Pepper

Chili flakes

Lemon juice - of 2 medium sized lemons

Dried oregano 

A mix of dried thyme-basil-rosemary-parsley 

Lemon - 1 whole 

Vegetables - lots of roughly diced vegetables. I used carrot beans, baby corns, potatoes

Mushrooms  - about 12 button mushrooms

Garlic cloves - 10-12

Coriander leaves - a handful of chopped coriander

Butter - about 40 gms.

Procedure

1. Mix lemon juice + rock salt +pepper+chili flakes + dried oregano+herb mix and rub the it all into every possible surface of the chicken and also inside the cavity.

2. An hour's marination is adequate but the longer the marination the better. I marinated it for 24 hours, unplanned and unintentionally.

3. While dicing the vegetables and mushrooms, switch on the oven (I used OTG) for preheating, at 250 deg C.

4.Spray/smear the baking tray with butter/olive oil

5. Arrange the diced vegetables on the tray. Sprinkle salt and pepper and drizzle/brush on some butter/olive oil on the vegetables.

6. Smear semi melted butter all over the chicken and also inside its cavity.

7. Take a lemon, prick it all over. Microwave it for 15-20 seconds and then push it into the chicken cavity along with some chopped coriander and garlic cloves.

8. Place the chicken on the vegetable bed. 

9. I used 'BAKE MODE' of the OTG for 50 minutes first.

10. Place the chicken on vegetables into the oven. After 10-15 minutes (till the chicken has a crispy golden coating), reduce the temperature to 200 deg C.

11. After lapse of 45-50 minutes, turn the chicken around. Baste the chicken and toss the vegetables around. Sprinkle some water if they are darkening/burning

12. After turning the chicken around, cook at 200 deg C for another 40-50 minutes....making it a total of 90-100 minutes cooking time..

13. Take it out of the kitchen. Keep it completely covered for about 10 minutes (I covered with my large wok upside down)

While the chicken was cooking and the aroma of melted butter wafted from the kitchen, my olfactories started working overtime, and suddenly I felt  a craving for rice.....took out some cooked rice leftover from the lunch and in a wok, melted a tbsp of butter, threw in a bay leaf, peppercorns, pinch of sugar & salt. Added the plain white rice, tossed it around to coat the butter-salt-sugar-pepper mix uniformly and hey presto! a heavenly butter rice to go with the chicken and vegetables, was ready!

This post is off to Sudeshna's Blog (COOK LIKE A BONG) ' s CHRISTMAS EVENT