Coconut Glazed Chicken

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Coconut Glazed Chicken

Serves 6 as Main Dish.

This is a recipe that I "invented" while trying to get a Thai-tasty roasted chicken with coconut. This is really more of a technique than a recipe as you can vary the flavoring elements to your taste. I will give you some alternatives at the end. The main feature of this dish is a citrus and herb flavored chicken with the coconut milk basting sauce that forms a caramelized glaze. This is not your crispy, crackling skin chicken but a different chicken altogether. My "crispy skin" afficionado friends continue to request this chicken.

• 1 Large roasting chicken, 6 lbs or larger, the bigger the better
  
• 2 Cans coconut milk, or more as needed
  
• 1 c Fresh herbs
  
• 1/4 c Fresh citrus juice
  
• 1 T Fish sauce, soy sauce or other similar sauces
  
• Other seasonings to taste, hot pepper sauce, garlic
  

The basic technique is to brine the chicken overnight, juice some citrus, stuff the cavity with citrus rinds, citrus pulp and wads of fresh herbs. Place on a roasting rack in the oven at 325F and roast for 1/2 hour per pound. Baste with the coconut milk citrus juice mixture, basting more often near the end. It should form a caramelized glaze.

This is the original Thai-like version:

Juice fresh limes to yield 1/4 cup of juice, reserving the rinds and pulp. To one can of coconut milk, add lime juice, fish sauce a little at a time. Taste as you go to get the balance of tart/salty that you like. I also add some lime zest. You can add hot pepper if you like but be careful as it will concentrate in the cooking process. I add a little sriracha to add some heat and a touch of garlic. (You don't want too much garlic as it will shout out the coconut.) Depending on the quality of your coconut milk, you may want to add some of the thick cream from the second can. You want your basting liquid to be like heavy cream.

Brine the chicken overnight in a standard 1 cup kosher salt per gallon of water brine. Remove from the brine, rinse and pat dry. Stuff the cavity with lime rinds and pulp, Thai basil if you can get it. Other basils will do. I also add some chopped lemon grass and fresh kaffir lime leaves since I have garden source for both. Truss and tie the chicken or not. Your preferrence. I do try to "pin up" the back end a bit so that if I add some of the coconut milk mixture to the cavity it doesn't run out immediately.

Put it in the 325F oven. After about 30 minutes, start basting. Baste about every half hour then more often toward the end of the cooking. Pay attention to your basting technique. Use a bulb baster and try to slowly "layer" the baste onto all surfaces. You are trying to build up that coconut glaze. A brush will disrupt the process. Squirt some into the cavity a few times. Be patient. The glaze doesn't really start to build intil the latter part of the process.

Reliably, my chickens are perfectly done and not overcooked at 1/2 hour per pound. Check with an instant read thermometer just to be sure. I pull the chicken out at 160F in the thigh.

Allow the chicken to rest at least 15 minutes, preferrably longer.

While the chicken is resting, heat the remaining basting liquid (if any) in a saucepan. Pour a little of the remaining coconut milk into the roasting pan to deglaze. (These drippings are likely to be quite salty and tart so you may not use them all.) Add the extra coconut milk to the sauce pan and bring to a slow simmer. Add pan drippings to taste. At this point I may add palm sugar, fish sauce and/or lime juice to balance the flavors. I may also steep some lemon grass and kaffir lime leaves.

Carve and serve. I serve this version with short grain brown rice.

Variations on the theme:

Lemon, rosemary, thyme

Orange and lemon or lime, tarragon or sage

(You get the idea.)

Add water soluble seasonings and citrus juice to the brine.

Vary the seasonings that you add to the baste. Just be careful that you don't overpower the coconut and remember that it will concentrate as the glaze is formed so be conservative with the tart and salty elements. Be very careful of adding a sweet component to the baste. You can have too much caramelization going on before a glaze forms. I prefer to add the sweet note in the sauce. I did have that problem one time when I used all orange juice and the oranges were exceptionally sweet.

Keywords: Main Dish, Intermediate, Chicken, Dinner, Thai

( RG633 )