daitaoha

This dish took ages to cook, first I bunged everything in the oven and waited for the said 35 minutes. 45 minutes later, the bone still wouldn’t pull away from the chicken like Jamie promised. Must be he has a super duper oven. So I got impatient and just took it out to grill (instead of bbq).

Earlier on I substituted lemon with lime (forgot to buy lemons), err, the end result, lime and lemon are really quite different. And I was too lazy to bash up the garlic cloves etc. so I made my own marinade with kecap manis (sweet soy sauce), oyster sauce,  honey and Worcestershire sauce and basted the chicken with it.

End result?

Jamie Oliver western style bbq chicken became Daitaoha Malaysian style grilled chicken. It actually tasted not bad, only so not Jamie Oliver. On another note, it was my ex manager’s last day at work today, really quite sad since he was my first real boss and a very nice and supportive one as well. He left me his brand new chair and some good books! Sigh, I will miss him.

Oh yes! My blog will feature a new regular, Xian Zhang, Jo’s bf is flying to Perth tonight and he will be here for the next few years for studies. Exciting or not? So I have to go to bed now because his flight is at midnight.

Jamie’s recipe below:

Best barbecued sticky chicken with lemon and garlic

Ingredients

• 8 chicken thighs, bone-in and skin on, preferably free range or organic
• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• olive oil
• 1 bulb of garlic, whole
• 2 lemons
• 5 sprigs of fresh rosemary, tied together
a good handful of rocket or pea shoots, washed and spun-dry

Method

Get your barbecue on about an hour before you want to cook and preheat your oven to 180ºC/350ºF/gas 4.

Season the chicken well with salt and pepper and drizzle with a little olive oil. Get a big double layer of tin foil and pop the thighs in the middle with the bulb of garlic. Chop one of your lemons in half and pop this in too. Wrap the chicken up then put your foil parcel on a baking tray and into the hot oven for 35 minutes until the chicken pulls away easily from the bone – if you have to tug at it it’s not ready, so pop it back in the oven for another 5 minutes or so.

When done, carefully take the chicken out off the oven and unwrap it. By this time your barbecue should be at the perfect temperature – a good medium heat – so get your chicken on to start charring.

While this is happening, get on with your sticky glaze. Carefully, clove by clove, squeeze the sweet roasted garlic out of its papery skin into a pestle and mortar. Carefully squeeze in the juice of your roasted lemon halves too. Give this a good bash up and season with salt and pepper then add a good lug of olive oil and mix until you have a thick paste. Now squeeze in the juice of the other lemon so you get 2 levels of lemon flavour – one sweet and roasted, the other fresh and zingy.

Use your rosemary sprigs to brush the paste onto the chicken, basting and turning for about 10 minutes so you are building up a lovely layer of sticky garlicky sweetness and a wonderful golden brown colour.

Once you’re happy with the chicken, use tongs to move it to a nice platter then top with the rocket or pea shoots and any remaining marinade and tuck in!