Plain Roast Chicken

I do roast chicken in two different ways: one is a garnished version and the other one is a plain version. For a typical roast meal, I usually go for the garnished version. For a chicken rice meal, I go for the plain version. This is how I do the plain one.

1) Get a fresh or a fully defrosted whole chicken cleaned and ready. And then I pre-heat my oven to about 190° (normal bake) or 180° (fan bake).

2) Put the chicken in a roasting or baking pan. If I’m using a baking pan, I usually line it with aluminium foil. It makes for an easier after-cooking clean-up!

3) Season the chicken with salt, cracked black pepper, and half a teaspoon of soy sauce.

4) Optionally, I add a tablespoon of dried coriander leaves and/or squeeze half a lemon or lime juice on to the chicken.

5) Baste the chicken with vegetable or olive oil.

6) Pop the whole thing in the oven.

7) After 30-45 minutes (depending on the size of the chicken), I check how the chicken is cooking - like how fast the outside is turning brown, blood ooze, etc. I sometimes poke it with a small knife or fork to check too. If the outside bits seem to be cooking much faster (getting brown too quickly), I lower the temperature of the oven. If the inside bits seem to be cooking well but the outside bit isn’t turning as brown as I’d like it to, I increase the oven temperature. And, I continue cooking for another 15-30 minutes.

Once the chicken’s cooked inside out, it’s ready to be served.

Even if you’re not thinking of doing a Singaporean Chicken Rice meal, you can still use this plain roast chicken recipe. You can serve it with potatoes (mashed, chips, roast, baked) or with plain jasmine rice. Next time, I’ll share how I do the whole chicken rice meal dish.

Tagged as: chicken, food, recipe, Untitled