I made roasted chicken rice for lunch. It's been a while since we last had something sinful.... I adapted the roasted chicken recipe from Angie of Seasaltwithfood. It's a little tedious, if you ask me because thee are so many sauces to make to accompany it. Aaron really likes the homemade dark soy sauce over his rice but I absolutely adore the ginger and spring onion dip. I ended up making the garlic chili sauce as well. So 3 types of condiments, cucumbers and corianders as garnishes.

And the rice...I cannot stress enough how important it is to get chicken with fats. Throw the fat trimmings into the rice and indulge....They say the yummiest food often is the most unhealthy one and I truly agree. I don't do this often so it is fine. We had an awesome lunch and saved some for dinner and we're still not sick of it.

Minus all the condiments, this is rather easy to make. You marinade the chicken and bake it and cook the rice with chicken broth and fat trimmings. You can chop up some cucumbers and coriander and also tomatoes if you like while the rice is cooking and the chicken is roasting. Use store bought Kecap Manis and Chili Sauce and just make the ginger spring onion dip if you wish to. Bu I'm just more into making things from scratch because I'm pretty picky. So is Aaron. They're often too sweet or not spicy enough or not garlicky enough. And they could easily be made using cheap stuffs, why bother buying really. If you're cooking for plenty, this is really, very worth making!

I do have habits of making chicken broth and storing them in my freezer because they come in so handy when I wanna make Soto Ayam or just simple chicken noodle soup. Like what Angie said, I sometimes add tofu cubes and Wakame seadweed to the soup. Else if left plain, a handful of fried shallots, finely shredded lettuce and a shake of pepper is good enough. All in all, there is many ways you can eat these. Thanks Angie for sharing such wonderfully roasted chicken recipe. They're so easy and your friends would have thought you've slaved over the BBQ pit for hours!


Roasted Chicken (serves 4 to 5)
Heavily adapted from Angie and Choesf

4 large whole marylands or use one whole chicken, trimmed off fat
1 tbsp Honey
2 tbsp ginger juice
1 tsp 5-spice powder
1 tsp ground white pepper
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp light soy sauce

Marinate the chicken all the ingredients for 30 minutes. Keep in fridge while you preheat the oven to 200˚C. Drain the chicken and roast in the oven for about 45 minutes or until the chicken is fully cooked and evenly browned all over.


Chicken stock:
2 whole chicken carcass
6 cups of water
1 spring onion, chopped to 3cm length pieces
Salt

Bring all the above to boil and simmer, covered for approximately an hour to 90mins. Skim the surface at the beginning until no foams are visible, only clear liquid stock.

Set aside and use it to cook the rice and the following sauces.

Chicken Rice:
2.5 cups of rice, washed and drained well
4 cloves of garlic, minced
1 shallot, finely sliced
3 slices of thick age old ginger, smashed to release aroma
2 pandan leaves, washed, knotted
1 tsp salt
Enough chicken stock to cook 2 cups of rice
All the chicken fat trimmings from the marylands
EVOO

Depending on how much fat trimmings you obtain, add a little oil if necessary into a pan and heat it up. Add in the the chicken fat and when they are rendering, toss in the ginger, garlic and shallots. Stir fry them until fragrant and garlic start turning a light brown colour. Toss in the drained rice and salt and stir to coat well and stir fry for a while to let flavour mingle a bit. Pour everything back into the rice cooker and add enough chicken stock to cook it. Throw in the pandan leaves and let the rice cooker do the cooking whilst you get along and do the condiments.


Garlic- Chili Sauce:
2 large red chilies, seeds removed
5 slices of thick aged old ginger, scraped with the back of spoon to peel it
6 cloves of garlic, peeled
3 tbsp of lime juice
1/4 cup of chicken stock
1 tbsp sugar or more
1/2 tsp salt or to taste

Process everything above until smooth and set aside. If you have a mortar and pestle, pound it first before processing and adding all the liquids. Pour them out on a dipping dish and set aside. Rinse your food processor and get ready for the next dipping sauce!

Ginger-Spring Onion Dipping Sauce:

2 spring onion, green part only, roughly chopped
Large thumb size piece of peeled age old ginger, roughly chopped
2 tbsp sesame oil
2 tbsp peanut oil

Process the ginger and spring onion until very fine. Tip them out into a heat resistant dipping saucer. Heat up the oil and when they are smoking, pour them into the ginger mixture. It will sizzle so step back. Stir to coat around. The oil will turn to a light shade of greenish like. Set aside.

Thick Black Sauce or Kecap Manis Dip:

1/2 tbsp oil or chicken fats if you have a lot to spare an are not worry about the cholesterol!
1/2 tbsp minced garlic
3/4 cup chicken stock
1/2 tbsp sugar
Thickener: 1 tbsp cornstarch + 3 tbsp cold water, stir to dissolve

Heat the oil or chicken fats in a pan and add in the minced garlic. Saute for a while and add in the chicken stock. Bring to boil and boil it for 2 minutes or so. Add in the sugar and stir to dissolve. Thicken with the thickener. Depending on how thick you want them to be, you might not necessarily use all of them. Pour them out into a dipping dish and set aside.

Enjoy!