Soy Roast Chicken by Gizzi Erskine
Gizzi Erskine presented several cooking programmes and cookery features for ITV1’s This Morning, contributed to Healthy Food Guide magazine and appeared on Sky1’s Taste. She has published Kitchen Magic and her latest book, Skinny Weeks and Weekend Feasts, is a best-seller.
Here Gizzi turns her attention to Lee Kum Kee Chinese ingredients and offers a roast chicken packed with flavours of the Orient, which showcases these products very well.
Ingredients
1 whole chicken 1.5-2kg
1 red chilli, halved
6 spring onions
1 tbsp groundnut oil
Decent pinch of sea salt
Marinade
3 tbsp Lee Kum Kee Premium Oyster Sauce
3 tbsp Lee Kum Kee Premium Light Soy Sauce
1 tbsp Lee Kum Kee Premium Dark Soy Sauce
1 tbsp Lee Kum Kee Pure Sesame Oil
3 tbsp golden caster sugar
60ml rice vinegar
1 tsp Chinese 5 spice
1 tsp ground white pepper
5 cm piece fresh ginger, peeled and sliced
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
Method
1 Mix all the marinade ingredients together in a small bowl. Place the chicken on a roasting tray. Pour the marinade all over the chicken, massaging it into the skin, and stuffing the ginger pieces and chilli into the cavity of the chicken. Allow to marinate for at least 1 hour, but preferably overnight. Once the marinating time is up, preheat the oven to 190C / 160C fan oven / Gas mark 5. Then use a needle and thread, carefully sew up the skin around the base cavity of the chicken, (blanket stitch is ideal for this), as tightly sealed as possible. Pour off the marinade into a jug.
2 Once the marinating time is up, preheat the oven to 190C / 160C fan oven / Gas mark 5. Then use a needle and thread, carefully sew up the skin around the base cavity of the chicken, (blanket stitch is ideal for this), as tightly sealed as possible. Pour off the marinade into a jug.
3 Give the roasting tray a wash, and then lay the spring onions in a line to act as a trivet for the chicken. Next, pour the marinade back into the cavity of the chicken through the neck cavity. Gently place on top of the spring onions being careful not to lose any juices. Finally, sew the skin of the neck cavity up to contain all of the marinade within the chicken.
4 Drizzle the groundnut oil over the chicken, and season liberally with salt. Put in the oven for 1 hour 10 minutes, depending on the size of the bird.
5 Allow the chicken to rest for 20 minutes before serving. To serve; cut through the part of the chicken that’s been sewn together and pour out the juices. Carve the chicken either British or Chinese style and serve.
Learn more about Lee Kum Kee products here