I realize that I’m going out on a limb here messing with tradition, but just in case anyone is looking for an alternative to turkey this holiday season (or any other time of year), this Thai inspired chicken may be worth considering.
It feels a bit odd talking about the holidays when it’s sunny and 17 degrees in the nation’s capital (that’s 63 F for my American friends). Yay November.
This a fragrant and delicious meal that is, conveniently enough, fantastically easy to put together.
Whole chicken is also one of the most economical meals you can make and, if you prepare it on a Sunday, you will have some delicious leftovers for work or school the next day.
Notes:
I recommend roasting your bird on a rack set inside your roasting pan to get it up and away from the juices on the bottom – this will allow the bird to brown along the sides.
I like to start with an initial burst of heat, followed by a more moderate temperature. This allows the skin of the chicken to crisp up nicely and lends a delicious roasted flavour.
Oven temperatures and birds will vary but here are some general guidelines to cooking times by weight of bird.
Chicken Roasting Times:
Weight of Bird Time
2 ½ – 3 lbs 1 – 1 ¾ hrs
3 ½ – 4 lbs 1 ½ – 1 ¾ hrs
4 ½ – 5 lbs 1 ½ – 2 hrs
5 – 6 lbs 1 ¾ – 2 ½ hrs
Heat oven to 450 F
There’s plenty of wholesome fat in coconut milk so I don’t rub the exterior of the bird with butter.
Place chopped onion in the cavity of the chicken and set it onto the cooking rack set inside roasting pan.
Combine: coconut milk, curry powder, 1 Tbsp brown sugar, 1/2 cup chopped cilantro, ginger and lime juice in a bowl, whisking to combine. Add salt and pepper to taste.
Reserve 1 cup of marinade in a separate dish and place in fridge.
Pour 3/4 of the remaining marinade mixture (‘active’ marinade) over chicken and place in oven for 20 minutes.
Remove chicken from oven, reduce heat to 375 F and, using a brush, glaze chicken with remaining 1/4 cup of the active marinade and return to oven.
Allow chicken to roast in accordance with size/time guidelines set out above. Check on chicken periodically to ensure that it is not drying out. You can spoon juices that accumulate at the bottom of the pan over chicken or use some of the reserved marinade from fridge. If you find that the skin is getting too dark or crisp, loosely tent foil over the chicken.
In the last 20 minutes of roasting, remove chicken from oven and sprinkle skin with 1 Tbsp or so of brown sugar. Return chicken to oven for remaining time.
Meanwhile, heat reserved marinade from fridge in a small pot on stove. This will be used to spoon over chicken (particularly nice for the white meat which tends to be dryer) or on the side of chicken, as desired, when serving.
Allow chicken to settle for 10 to 15 minutes out of oven before carving. Serve with remaining fresh cilantro and warmed reserved marinade as desired.
Enjoy.
This looks wonderful…Must try
Goodness me, I’m speechless. And that never happens. Wow!
Really? I didn’t know it was possible not to like cilantro – :0 – lol.
Got it :) – sometimes experiments work out quite well. This one was fun and fragrant. I hope you like it if you give it a try. Thanks so much for dropping by with your comments.
Thank you !
Love that flavour combo! I know cilantro is kind of a love-hate thing for a lot of people, but I love it!
I don’t know what happened to my previous comment. Any way,Its good to go off track sometime. Your chicken with coconut milk looks Yum-mo! this is http://simpleglutenfreekitchen.blogspot.com/
What a lovely combination of coconut and chicken. simple and best. this is http://simpleglutenfreekitchen.blogspot.com/
I’m not looking for an alternative for T-Day, but I would love to make this for a Sunday dinner. Is it weird I want black beans with it? It looks fantastic no matter when you serve it!
Love this! What great seasonings!
well, that works! ;0)
Thanks Angie :0
they’re a dynamic trio that’s for sure – thanks Em.
I hope you share your Indian inspired chicken Kiran – would love to see it!
by IV if you have to :=) I understand the whole tradition thing just never been wed to food tradition myself. We usually have cheese fondue for Reveillon (the 24th) and roast beef for Christmas (I only cook roast beef once a year ;0) But this chicken is fun any time of year! Cheers Charles.
I seem to prefer chicken to turkey though don’t usually make either at Christmas or Thanksgiving. Thanks Cooking Gallery!
it seemed to work out fairly well – thanks.
thank you France – it changes things up a bit.
Thanks so much for stopping by –
Oh, well, if you insist… :) thanks Mandy!
Thanks Linda – I’m enjoying following your traditional Thanksgiving…
yay! Perfect.
Thanks Lynn, let me know if you give a try. It’s different and very fragrant (as in, your house will smell of curry for a month but don’t worry too much about that – ;0)
Thanks Yummy!
I’m not a fussy cook so if I have the skill to pull it off, any foodie does ;) – the trick is to keep the bird well basted and if it starts to get too crisp just loosely foil it – it’s hard to go wrong.
ha-ha, very good! Thanks Sally – xo
You know, it’s one of the easiest meals you can make… some wholesome fat and a touch of sugar on your on your way to crispy heaven. Well, as my neighbour just said across the fence (we’re both bbq dinner right now), we’re going to pay for this nice weather!! Ha-ha… the shovels are never to far away here ;0
Thanks Jeanette – I find myself always looking up temperature and cooking time so I thought I would put it right into the post. I’m glad you find it helpful!
Thanks Medeja!
The leftovers are great! We toss them into salads at lunch – so yummy.
Agreed. You can go with any size that works for you and/or your family – it’s effortless planning.
ooh, delightful accompaniment….
Thanks so much Irena!
oh, that mango chutney sounds divine! Thanks Margaret.
there’s always Christmas… hee-hee!! :) Thanks for dropping in Dee! Good to see you!
Aww, thanks Dzoli!! xo
It was a bit of an experiment but seemed to work nicely. The reserved marinade is nice too – keeps everything warm and flavourful. Thanks Stephanie!
Agreed – I cooked it up in late August and we’ve been enjoying about once a month since… yum!
I’ve never been very good at observing food traditions. I don’t remember the last time I cooked up a turkey for Thanksgiving or Christmas… thank you for your kind words Sissi – a little fat and a little sugar help a lot with the roasting ;0
It’s a pretty amazing combination, isn’t it? We were just out forThai on Friday night and our youngest ordered it (it’s his favourite) – we ended up sharing quite a bit – too good to miss out!
Ah, thanks Kay. I suspect you might like this dish a little more than my current bean post ;0
Your chicken looks awesome! Conveniently enough I’ve got a whole chicken waiting in my fridge then I intended to roast…and all of the other ingredients on hand…YES!
That’s a perfectly roasted bird!
this looks great! ginger, lime, and cilantro are three of my fave flavor boosters.
What a coincidence – I was planning to roast whole chicken for thanksgiving with Indian inspirations. That looks like a moist and delicious chicken, waiting to be carved :D
I’m not sure how well this would go down if I served it up for Christmas – people can be hellishly traditional about things like that – but it looks fantastic so definitely something so cook up before or after the festive season (I say that as we don’t celebrate Thanksgiving of course in Europe).
Coconut, lime juice, ginger and cilantro are one of the most amazing combos I’ve ever encountered I think (like, seriously – stick it in a trough and call me a hog, I’d drink it from a bucket if I could!). Thanks for sharing Kelly – I always make very “boring”, traditional roast chickens and the like, so a bit of a change would be great. Now I just need to learn how to properly carve the damn thing :p
what a turkey! ;0
The roasted chicken looks perfect and I love how simple the recipe sounds! I prefer chicken than turkey, even though around Christmas I usually eat roasted duck with braised cabbage.
Wow – lovely! That marinade sounds amazingly good!
If I ate turkey, this is exactly the turkey I would want to have on T-Day. I much prefer Thai flavors to just about any others!
oops, sorry, i just assumed this was a turkey!! i am a dork
–Kelly, I can use this marinade for chicken, too, right? It sounds fabulous! thanks, Sweets.
Kim http://myinnerchick.com
I love the twist on a classic. I’m not much into plain jane turkey dinner, too boring for me, but this!…now we’re talking. It’s original, flavorful and easy. WHat a great recipe Kelly. You always have such fantastic ideas.
That’s one beautiful bird! Awesome flavor combination, Kelly. And we’re not having much of a winter yet here in CA either, per usual. I guess it’s supposed to rain this weekend though, so I’m happy about that….means snow in the mountains!
This looks like something fit for a King! Wow, well done! The flavor combinations sound amazing!
You are a genius! Love this idea!
:-) Mandy
I do enjoy turkey, but my sister always makes cornish hens as her family does not like turkey!! So there are folks out there not into the traditional turkey! This presents itself gorgeously and has a wonderful mix of flavors. Absolutely beautiful!
Agree.. roasted chicken can be used creatively throughout the week :)
I have one I bought at Whole Foods sitting in my fridge right now, waiting on a recipe like this!
I am inspired! I never thought of messing with my roasted chicken. This is something well worth trying – a beautiful mixture, can’t wait!
Lynn
What a great flavor combo for roast chicken. Yum!
ooh, great flavors! I’ve only roasted a whole chicken once and it still kind of scares me, hehe. I feel like if one part is cook, the other is either undercooked or over done. But my fiance likes dry chicken, so I guess I could always give him the parts that get a little more cooked.
Ok, let me get this straight. You said roasted coconut. You said curry. Ginger. LIme. Cilantro.
I don’t even need the chicken. This is too good!
awesome post!
Mmmm! This looks so good. I love ginger and cilantro, and it looks roasted to perfection. Roasting a whole chicken is on my list of recipes to try this season. I can’t wait to do it! But now on to other things – it’s really that warm up by you?! So jealous!!!
Love the flavors in this marinade! Thanks for providing the cooking time chart – very helpful.
Sounds like a really delicious roasted chicken!
Kelly, what a delicious sounding combination of flavors! I will definitely be giving this a try! It will be a fun unique meal when family is visiting over the holidays! I bet the leftovers would make wonderful wraps! Thanks, Chris
This is fantastic! Such a great alternative to turkey…AND for folks who just want to make a smaller bird!
This looks absolutely amazing! I have an amazing recipe for cilantro lime rice that I bet would be a great side for this!
Amazing looking bird, wonderful job:)
http://mywanderingspoon.wordpress.com/2011/11/10/my-new-video-sweet-potato-pecan-tart-grill-style-recipe/
Your photo makes that chicken look simply mouthwatering! Funny, I had lemon-mango chutney-curry chicken for dinner tonight. I’ll have to try this recipe…it looks much healthier ;-). I’m inspired.
I would totally make this for Thanksgiving! We aren’t big turkey fans so this is perfect for us! Unfortunately we have to go to our parents house’s for Thanksgiving this year and they totally would freak if there was no turkey! I’m saving this, maybe for Christmas :) I’m giddy!
Dream of a roasted chicken.Almost smells from the screen:)
This chicken sounds awesome, Kelly! I would have never thought to put these flavors on a roasted chicken!
This chicken sounds amazing for anytime of year! Thanks for sharing Kelly!
I am lucky we don’t celebrate Thanksgiving here, since I always prefer chicken rather than turkey (it tends to be very dry and I have never found free range turkey; the result: I haven’t had turkey for at least two years). Your chicken should be shown as the perfect example of a roast chicken. Mine is never as beautiful. Your spices and condiments are among my favourite. In short: I regret I can’t snatch a piece of this lovely bird.
This looks amazing! I love the flavors you used…. coconut curry is the BEST.
I am such a chicken person, and the flavor combo in this Roasted Coconut Curry Chicken recipe sounds amazing. You’ve outdone yourself Kelly :)