Japanese Style Roasted Chook
If you want a roast chicken (or ‘chook’ as I know it from 12 years in New Zealand) thats very easy to prepare yet so different from the standard roast, then please try this Japanese method. Adapted more so to meet with our western tastebuds and of course, what we can find (and is available) in our local food shops. Great for lunch or dinner and very suitable when cold to pack up in a plastic container to take on a picnic.
Ingredients
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1 whole chicken- family size
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Marinade:
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3 tbsp of Sweet Miso paste or 350g soya beans- pre-cooked and drained from liquid
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1 tbsp white wine
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1 tbsp dark soy sauce
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10g / 1tbsp miso soup flavouring - preservative free
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1 preserved lemon- thinly sliced
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1 - 2 tbsp of fresh ginger juice- finely grated fresh ginger, hand squeezed for juice only
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2 large onions- skinned, halved and purely to sit chicken on for roasting
Instructions
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Prepare chicken:
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01 Remove giblets (inside) and all excess fat. Dry surface if chicken with kitchen towel.
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Prepare marinade:
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02 Place all ingredients in a food mixer and blend to a thick paste. Do NOT add salt as the soy sauce provides this.
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Prepare chicken to roast:
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03 Smother thickly the whole of chicken with the bean paste and marinade for a good 1-2 hours (hands get messy but its the best way!).
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04 Roast in the oven for 50-60 minutes until flesh is cooked. Its OK to place chicken on thick onions slices to ‘lift’ it up from the roasting tin.
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05 Serve with steamed rice and pan fried greens of your choice, lightly sautéed in sesame oil.
Notes
If you can buy sweet miso paste use this rather than the pre-cooked soy beans, but over here unobtainable hence why I make my own miso paste. Preserved lemons are the BEST and should be available in jars from the delicatessen but if not, use fresh lemons, cut very finely - more the yellow skin than the flesh (must be cut very finely).
