Hulda
Roasted chicken is a great dish to enjoy with the family or for festive occasions. It goes very well with fried plantain, roasted potatoes, rice or another side dish of your choice.
You know that it is a good seasoning that makes a delicious roast chicken. Therefore, I want to present to you an African seasoning. For this, I use the following African spices: African nutmeg, country onions, djansang and prékéssé. Click here for more information about these spices.
How to season the chicken?
The seasoning is a very important step in roasting chicken. This step will help make this roast a real delight. Therefore, you need to cut the chicken many times on the breast and tights (these areas are fleshy). Then insert the spice in these slits.
For the seasoning to blend well with the chicken, it is important to season the chicken the night before.
How to roast the chicken?
The next day, when it is time to roast the chicken, insert half an onion and half a lemon in the chicken cavity. Then tie the two ends of the chicken thigh with a kitchen string. Place the chicken in a tray and roast. The roasting time depends on the size of your chicken. For this recipe, I have used an extra-large chicken and my roasting time was 1 hour 40 minutes. To check if the meat is cooked, you can use a digital thermometer(about 74°C means it is cooked). Alternatively, you can pierce the meat, if it’s water is clear then it is ready.
Roasted chicken with African flavours
Equipment
- roasting tray
- oven
- Blender
- knife
- grinder
Ingredients
- 1 whole chicken
- 2 lemons
- 3 onions
- 2 african nutmeg(Pebe)
- 4 country onions
- 20 seeds of Djansang
- 7 g Prékéssé (Fruit 4 côtés/Esesè)
- 6 branches of parsley
- 6 garlic cloves
- 1 handful of basil
- 1 tsp dried thyme
- 1 tsp white pepper powder
- 1 tsp black pepper powder
- 1 hot pepper optional
- salt
- oil
Instructions
- Clean and wash the chicken with water. Cut one lemon into two parts and spread one half all over the chicken.
- Put the African nutmeg, country onions, Djansang and Prékéssé into the grinder and grind them together. Then pour the mix into the blender. Afterwards, add the cleaned and roughly chopped two onions, garlic, parsley, basil and hot pepper. Blend them all.
- Pour the mixture into a bowl, add the salt, two tablespoon of oil, white and black pepper. Stir and taste, adjust the quantity of salt if necessary.
- Marinate the whole chicken in and out with half of this mixture and reserve the other half for the hot pepper sauce later(if you plan to do one). Separate the chicken's skin from the breast meat with your hands( dont remove the skin). Insert the knife between the skin and the breast, slash it 5 to 6 times and put seasoning inside each slit. Cut each thigh as well and insert the seasoning. Cover the chicken for at least 12 hours.
- Preheat the oven to 230°C. Place the marinated chicken in the roasting tray and rub it with oil. Cut the remaining onion into two parts. Put one half of the onion together with the remaining lemon inside the chicken's cavity. Then tie the two ends of the chicken thigh with a kitchen string. Put the other half of onion in the tray.
- Place the chicken in the oven, let it roast for 40 min at 200°C. Remove it, rub it with oil and put it back again for another 40 min. Check if cooked, if not roast for another 20 min.
Feel free to share this recipe with your family and friends. It will also be a great pleasure for me to see a picture of your own creation. Let’s keep in touch by following me on Youtube, Pinterest, Instagram and Facebook.
