Recipes

One-pot Indian roast chicken

Donal Skehan’s one-pot Indian roast chicken

Donal Skehan
Sat May 13 2017 - 06:07
Serves: 0
Course: Main Course
Cooking Time: 1 hr 30 mins
Ingredients
  • For the chicken:
  • 1.5kg whole chicken
  • 2 large onions, peeled and cut into thick slices
  • 1 tbsp rapeseed oil
  • 1 lemon, halved
  •  
  • For the marinade:
  • 2 large garlic cloves, crushed
  • 1 tbsp freshly grated root ginger
  • 1 tsp ground cumin
  • 2 tsp ground coriander
  • 2 tsp garam masala
  • 1 tsp hot paprika
  • 1 tbsp ground turmeric
  • 2 tbsp rapeseed oil
  • 250ml natural yoghurt
  • Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
  •  
  • For the couscous:
  • 3 cardamom pods
  • 200g couscous
  • 2 tsp vegetable stock granules
  • Handful fresh coriander leaves, roughly chopped
  • 100g toasted slivered almonds

This is a great Indian-inspired twist on the traditional roast where the chicken is marinated in yoghurt and spices making it meltingly tender. Given time to marinade the spices permeate and really penetrate the flesh of the chicken. The couscous is an option but works really well to bring the meal together.

To make the marinade, mix the garlic, ginger, cumin, coriander, garam masala, turmeric, paprika, olive oil and yoghurt in a large bowl and season with salt and pepper. Slash the chicken legs several times with a sharp knife, then rub the marinade all over the chicken, both inside and out. If time allows, put the chicken in a large food bag, or covered in a non-metallic dish, and leave to marinate for at least four hours, or up to 24 hours is best.

Take your chicken out of the fridge 30 minutes before it goes into the oven. Preheat the oven to 230°C/450°F/Gas Mark 8. Make a trivet with the onions in an oval casserole dish or roasting tin and then drizzle over the rapeseed oil. Season with salt and pepper and sit the chicken on top.

Put the lemon inside the chicken’s cavity and place in the oven and immediately reduce the heat to 200°C. Cover the chicken loosely with foil and roast for 30 minutes. Remove the foil and roast for another 50 minutes, basting the chicken halfway through cooking.

Meanwhile, prepare the couscous. Bash the cardamom pods with the back of a knife and place them in a bowl with the couscous. Add the stock granules and cover with boiling water, cover with cling film and leave until all the water has been soaked up and the couscous is nice a plump. Using a fork fluff up the couscous when it’s ready and fold in the coriander and almonds.

Let the chicken rest for 10 minutes before you carve it, then arrange on warmed serving plates with the couscous to serve.

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