Oven-Baked Herbed Chicken

I was having a second thought if I will roast it or bake it. I decided to bake it.

This is the first time I tried to bake a whole chicken, and had a truly tender-cooked juicy chicken meat. 

And the taste was perfect!You really cant go wrong with lemongrass, really nice flavor! Baking the chicken made the meat really tender, and at the same time achieving a roast-like crisp chicken.

Oven-Baked Herbed Chicken

Ingredients:

1 whole chicken- about 1.5 kls

1 bunch lemongrass

1  big onion, chopped

1/8 cup calamansi juice or 1/4 cup lemon juice

30g McCormick Zesty Garlic Mix, dissolved in 1/2 cup water

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp dried rosemary herb

1/4 tsp ground peppercorn

butter, about 25g

Procedure:

• Clean the chicken. Make sure to remove the small feathers in the skin. Remove the insides. Wash the chicken and pat dry.
• In a bowl, mix the zesty garlic, 1/8 tsp ground peppercorn and salt. Pour over the chicken and inside the cavity. Let the chicken absorb the flavor. Marinate at least 30 minutes. But if you have the luxury of time, marinate overnight in the fridge.

stuff the chicken with the herbs

• Pre-heat oven to 210°C.
• Remove the chicken from the marinade. 
• Rub the chicken with the calamansi juice.
• Stuff the lemongrass and chopped onions inside the chicken through its cavity.

Secure the legs with a lemongrass leaf, rub with butter, season with rosemary and  ground pepper

• Rub the chicken with butter. Then sprinkle the rest of the ground peppercorn and the rosemary.
• Secure the legs of the chicken with a string or lemongrass leaf.
• Wrap the chicken in foil, in doing this, we are sure all the flavors will be absorb by the chicken. Then place into a baking dish.
• Bake for 1 hour.

uncover the chicken-just remove the top foil, we want the juice to
drip right inside let the chicken absorb the flavor

•  Then carefully remove the top foil (not the entire foil, just the piece that covers the chicken)

See that juice? This wont go to waste,  I'm going to use it
for another dish as added flavor.

• Bake for another 1 hour. We want to have that tender crisp and nice golden brown color of the chicken. When done, let stand for about 5-10 minutes before serving. Enjoy!

tender crisp skin

oh so yummy!

This post is linked to:   Food Trip Friday , Fun With Food Friday , Fresh Food Friday , Foodista , Petit Chef