Welcome to a livestream from my kitchen, where I am eating this dish while I write about it. It is inspired by gai yang, a Thai dish of chargrilled chicken marinated in lemongrass, lime, coriander, garlic and fish sauce, and served with a crunchy, zippy salad. I serve mine with jasmine rice, to soak up all the fragrant juices from the chicken and dressing. Don’t be deterred by the ingredients list: it may look long, but you’ll likely have a lot of it in the cupboard. Over and out.
Slow roast citrus chicken with cucumber and peanut salad
I like to cook chicken legs slowly like this, so the skin goes crisp and everything cooks in the chicken fat that collects at the bottom of the tin to give maximum flavour. I also love how the chicken falls off the bone.
Prep 20 min
Marinate 20 min+
Cook 1 hr 20 min
Serves 4
For the chicken
2 lemongrass stalks, roughly chopped
3cm piece root ginger, peeled and roughly chopped
A large handful of fresh coriander, roughly chopped
Juice of ½ an orange (other half for the dressing)
Juice of 1 lime
4 garlic cloves, peeled
½ tbsp fish sauce
2 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tsp white pepper
1 tbsp caster sugar
4 tbsp neutral oil
4 chicken legs or 8 thighs
5 banana shallots, peeled and halved lengthways
Salt
For the cucumber salad
Zest and juice of 2 limes
2 fresh makrut lime leaves, very finely chopped
1 tbsp fish sauce
1 red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped
A pinch of salt
1 cucumber, julienned or thinly sliced
A small handful of coriander, leaves pickles and stalks finely chopped
A small handful of thai basil, leaves picked (or mint leaves if you cant find)
50g roasted peanuts, finely chopped, plus more to serve
To serve
200g jasmine rice
Heat the oven to 240C (220C fan)/465F/gas 9. To make the marinade, put the lemongrass, ginger, coriander leaves, orange and lime juice, garlic, fish sauce, soy sauce, pepper, sugar, a pinch of salt and oil in a blender and blitz to a paste. Rub three-quarters of the marinade all over the chicken, then set aside for at least 20 minutes.
Put the shallots on a baking tray with a pinch of salt. Add the remaining marinade and two tablespoons of oil, toss to coat, then lay the chicken on top in a single layer.
Roast for 25 minutes, then add 100ml water to the tray and turn down the heat to 190C (170C fan)/375F/gas 5 and cook for another 45 minutes, until golden.
Cook the rice according to the packet instructions. Once cooked and drained, carefully pour over a few tablespoons of the chicken juice from the tray, add a pinch of salt and stir briefly with a fork.
To make the salad, zest the limes into a bowl, then squeeze in the lime juice, the other half of the orange juice, the finely chopped lime leaves, fish sauce, red chilli and salt. Give it a quick mix, then chop the cucumber however you like, and add to the bowl with the dressing and herb leaves.
Season the peanuts with a pinch of salt, then toss with the cucumber salad. Serve the chicken with a few roast shallots, a scoop of rice and a mound of salad, and top with an extra sprinkling of peanuts.
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Kitty Coles’s book, Make More with Less: Foolproof Recipes to Make Your Food go Further, is published by Hardie Grant at £22. To order a copy for £19.36, go to guardianbookshop.com
