Salt and Pepper Chicken (椒鹽雞)

Today I was chatting with my friend, Kit, about dinner. I bought a chicken from the supermarket on final clearance on Thursday, so it's 2 days past its sell-by. Gave it a sniff and it seems fine! We thought about soy chicken, Hainan chicken rice, one of Jamie's recipes (with butter, pancetta and thyme, yum), 白切雞 (white cut chicken) and salt and pepper chicken. Salt and pepper chicken won, because it's a great, lazy recipe.

Kit also persuaded me to buy a halogen cooker when we were in Costco one time, and I used it to roast the chicken tonight. Result was lovely and juicy, and it was easy to collect all of the juices afterwards. The only problem with the halogen cooker is the addictive nature of the light going on and off all the time, which led me to hover anxiously by it for longer than I really need to!

Ingredients

• 1.6kg chicken, preferably organic or free-range, giblets removed
• A thumb-sized piece of raw ginger, peeled
• My Dad's salt and pepper mix, which consists of salt and 5-spice, and some Sichuan peppercorns, all stirred around a hot wok until aromatic (you can jar this and keep it in the cupboard forever)

Dad's salt and pepper mix

Instructions

• Pluck any stray feathers and hairs from the chicken, cut off the parson's nose, pull out and trim any excess skin and fat, and wash the inside and outside thoroughly. Dry with kitchen towels.
• Finely grate the raw ginger, and mix in 1 1/2 teaspoons of the salt and pepper mix. smear all over the inside of the chicken and leave to absorb the flavours, if you have time.
• Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees.
• Cover the wing and leg tips with foil to prevent them from burning. Sprinkle a little more of the salt and  pepper onto the outside of the chicken, and pat it onto the surface.
• Put the chicken onto a rack, breast-side down, and place in the oven for 40 minutes.
• After 40 minutes, turn to breast-side up and cook for another 40-45 minutes, or until the juices run clear.
• Rest for 20 minutes, remove the foil and carve.

We had this with rice and boiled broccoli in oyster sauce. The thigh meat is lovely, oily, smooth and juicy, with crispy thin skin. The toddler wasn't so fussed, but he did enjoy eating his rice, with the chicken juice mixed in.

Salt and Pepper Chicken