Chicken & Rice

I love watching travel-food shows on YouTube and one of the things that you see often is Thai cooked chicken and rice. Now, this is not that! But it got me inspired to make this kinda simple grilled chicken with a variety of dipping sauces. A quick, spatchcock chicken with sticky rice and chili, soy-sesame, peanut and hoisin sauce.

Chicken:

• 1 small chicken (this one was about 1,2 kg and perfect for 2)

• 1 tsp salt

• 1 tsp sugar

• ½ tsp MSG

• ¼ tsp garlic powder

• ¼ tsp white pepper

• some oil

Chili dipping sauce:

• 2 whole pickled chili pepper

• 2 garlic cloves

• 2 tsp grated ginger

• 2 tbsp soy sauce

• 1 tbsp chili oil

>> get everything in a food prosessor and mix until pretty fine.

Soy-sesame dipping sauce:

• 2 tsp sesame oil

• 2 tsp roasted sesame seeds

• 6 tbsp soy sauce

• 1 tsp rice vinegar

• 2 tbsp honey

• 1 garlic clove

• 1 tbsp ginger syrup

>> mix everything well, grate the garlic clove.

Peanut dipping sauce:

• 2 tbsp 100% peanutbutter

• 1 tbsp chili oil

• 2 tbsp soy sauce

• 1 grated carlic clove

• some hot water

• 1 tbsp sugar

• 1 tsp pickled ginger

>> mix everything well, use the hot water to get the right thickness.

Hoisin dipping sauce:

• 2 tbsp Hoisin sauce

• 1 tbsp ginger syrup

• 2 tbsp warm water

• 1 tsp sesame oil

• 1 grated garlic clove

• 1 tbsp soy sauce

>> mix well, add more water to taste.

1. Pre-heat your oven at 180°C. While the oven it getting warm, spatchcock your chicken (cut out the spine with kitchen scissors and flatten the chicken).

2. Dry your chicken with a paper towel and mix the ingredients as listed above. If you don't have MSG get some if you can (it's amazing). If you can't find any at your local Asian supermarket, you can leave it out, but it's better if you can use it. Rub all the spices over the chicken. This amount should be perfect for one whole chicken.

3. Put the chicken on an oven rack on top of an oven tray. You don't want your chicken to lay in it's own drippings, this will make the skin on the bottom soggy.

4. Grill the chicken in the middle of the oven for 40 to 45 minutes or the thickest part has a temperature of 75°C on the inside.

Chop the chicken in half and serve with sticky rice!

Enjoy!