Soy roast chicken

Ingredients

• 1 whole chicken 1.5-2kg

For the marinade

• 3 tbsp Lee Kum Kee light soy sauce
• 1 tbsp Lee Kum Kee dark soy sauce
• 3 tbsp golden caster sugar
• 1 tbsp sesame oil
• 60ml rice vinegar
• 3 tbsp Lee Kum Kee Premium Oyster sauce
• 1 1/2 tsp Chinese 5 spice
• 1 tsp ground white pepper
• 1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
• 5 cm piece fresh ginger, peeled and sliced
• 1 red chilli, halved
• 6 spring onions
• 1 tbsp groundnut oil
• Decent pinch of sea salt

Method

This dish combines two of my favourite things – a great British roast dinner and Asian flavours. Nothing beats a roast chicken, but this take on it delivers something a bit special that can either be served with all the traditional roast trimmings or equally well with plain rice and stir-fried vegetables.

1. Mix together all of 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.

2. Once the marinating time is up, preheat the oven to 190C / 160C fan oven / Gas mark 5. Now this next bit is a little fiddly, but trust me it’s worth it. With a needle and thread, carefully sew up the skin around the base cavity of the chicken, (blanket stitch is ideal for this), so that it is as tightly sealed as possible. Pour off the marinade into a jug.

3. Give the roasting tray and 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.

Our thanks to Lee Kum Kee and Gizzi Erskine for providing this recipe

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