Alternative roast for Easter Sunday recipe: Thai satay chicken

Lamb roasts may be synonymous in the UK for Easter Sunday, but that shouldn’t stop you from exploring less traditional options — especially as, despite tradition, lamb is not at its best in the UK spring, really being in season around autumn. Chicken, though, is always a great go-to meat when it comes to prepare a hearty Sunday meal.

Looking for something different to spice up your roast? Try this Thai twist on roast chicken, marinated in a sweet, fragrant satay sauce.

Satay is commonly eaten across Asia and traditionally is used to marinate meats or vegetables before skewering and barbecuing over open flame. It takes a little dedication to make the curry paste, but once you have, marinating and roasting the whole chicken is a breeze. In a rush? A quick-and-easy satay can be made using 200g of a red curry paste — I would say this, but I think my red curry “payst” works best. Swap the shallots, garlic, ginger and dried chilli for the paste in this recipe. Combining the peanuts and coconut to a pre-made red curry, this recipe is quick, simple and extremely tasty.

Serves: 4

Ingredients

• 1 whole large chicken, around 1.5kg, corn fed and free-range
• 500ml coconut cream
• 2 tablespoon fish sauce
• 2 tablespoons palm sugar
• 6 tablespoons coconut oil (vegetable oil can be used instead)
• Salt
• Steamed jasmine rice

For the sauce

• 8 large dried red chillies, chopped in half with scissors, soaked in warm water to soften, drained, de-seeded
• 6 banana shallots, peeled
• 5 garlic cloves, peeled
• 1 large knob peeled ginger, roughly 40g
• 80g desiccated coconut
• 80g roasted peanuts

Method

1. Firstly, if you’re not using pre-made, make the paste. In a large pestle and mortar, proceed to pound all ingredients one at a time first. Individually pound each ingredient until the mixture begins to resemble a paste, then remove from the pestle and place to one side. Start with the dried chili, ginger, garlic, shallots, peanuts and then coconut, using salt as an abrasive if needed. Once all these ingredients have had a good bashing, add all the other ingredients together in the pestle and mortar until they have all become one paste. It is normal for this process to take quite a time to complete properly. Because of the coconut content, this paste will only last a week or so, so keep the container it is in wrapped airtight and refrigerated or freeze.
2. Now cook out the satay curry. In a large non-stick pan add the coconut oil and heat to a high heat. Add the paste and continue to cook out using a metal spoon, so you can scrape the paste (as it will want to stick to the pan).
3. Continue to fry the paste for around 15-20 minutes until the paste darkens slightly and the smell becomes one. I always find when cooking out a curry that you can smell the individual ingredients cooking in turn, until it all blends into one smell once all ingredients are cooked and fused together. At this stage add the palm sugar and turn the paste down to a medium heat, continue to stir and scrape until the sugar caramelises and the paste begins to darken.
4. When this happens add the fish sauce; adding this moisture to the paste will deglaze any paste that has stuck a little to the pan. Bear in mind if you are using my red curry Payst it is already pre-seasoned with palm sugar and fish sauce.
5. Next take off the heat and add the coconut cream and mix well.
6. Allow this mix to cool and then place the chicken in a tray and cover with the cooked-out curry paste, making sure to completely cover the whole chicken under and over with the cooked paste. Then leave this to marinate for a minimum of two hours, ideally overnight.
7. Once marinated, pre-heat an oven to 200°C and place the chicken, skin side up, in a non-stick tray, covered with tin foil on the middle shelf for 40-45 minutes, then remove the tin foil and cook for a further 20 minutes to colour the skin. The paste on the top should be beginning to crisp a little and the chicken juices should be running into the curry paste.
8. Check that the chicken is cooked throughout by making an incision at the leg all the way down to the bone and checking if there are any signs of blood; if there is, return to the oven for a further 5-10 minutes until it is cooked, and the juices run clear. For best results use a temperature probe, you can take it out at 75-80°C and it will still be moist and succulent. Allow to rest for 5 minutes before serving.
9. Serve with steamed jasmine rice and carve at the centre of the table.