Are you chicken?

I decided to make a Sunday chicken lunch today. It has been a while since I cooked chicken and it has been a while since I baked anything. So I decided I'd combine the two and make my chicken baked in salt. Yes, the whole chicken is baked in salt. The skin becomes quite salty so I never eat the skin. The meat itself becomes very tender and literally falls off the bone.

To go with my chicken, I've decided to pair it with some sweet orange sauce.

I've already prepared the ingredients for this dish a few days before as I had to make sure that the olive oil is already infused with the flavours of the rosemary and fennel.

Chicken baked in salt

The ingredients

• Chicken - size 17
• Rosemary
• Fennel
• Olive oil
• 2 kgs salt
• 4 lemons
• 1 small whole garlic
• 1 small whole onion
• 2 eggs

Prepare the olive oil mixture a few days before. Steep the rosemary and fennel into the oil and leave it. You'll use this once you're preparing the chicken.

Once you're ready, prepare the chicken; squeeze the lemon juice; mix the egg with the salt in a bowl; mix the juice with the 2kgs of salt, mix some rosemary and fennel into the salt mixture; squeeze the empty lemon rinds into the chicken along with the onion and garlic;  prepare an aluminium tray; make a salt bed; brush the olive oil mixture onto the chicken; put the chicken on the bed; put the salt mixture onto the chicken and make sure you cover the whole chicken; preheat oven to 200 C; throw in the chicken for 2 hours; crack it open and enjoy!

Orange Sauce

The Ingredients

• 1 tbsp corn starch
• 3/4 cup sugar
• juice of 4 oranges
• 2 tbsp butter

Juice the oranges; zest a rind; heat up your sauce pan, throw in the sugar and the corn starch; pour in the orange juice; whisk everything together; throw in the butter when it starts to boil; let it simmer for a couple of minutes and serve!   

Chicken Baked in Salt

size 17 chicken, washed and ready

4 lemons

stuffing the lemon rinds, rosemary, onion & garlic inside

lemon juice, eggs and salt for the salt mixture

throw in the chopped fennel & rosemary

extra virgin olive oil with rosemary & fennel

brushing on the oil mixture

preparing the salt bed

the salt mixture ready for application

slathering on the salt mixture

all done & ready for throwing into the preheated oven

after 2 hours of baking at 200 C

the chicken is hidden inside the tough salt shell

cracking open the chicken

taking off the hard salt shell

chicken ready for serving

chicken so soft, it falls off the bone

Orange Sauce

4 oranges ready for juicing

zesting the orange

orange zest

1 tbsp corn starch

3/4 cup sugar

the juice of 4 oranges

whisking everything in the sauce pan

the orange sauce ready for serving

I hope you guys enjoyed this post. The chicken skin is salty. I do not recommend eating it. I take it all off and take off the meat off the bones. The garlic inside would be very soft. I squeeze it out and mix it with my thyme rice. I take the chicken meat and put it on top of the rice and pour the sauce. It is delicious! I ate so much, I probably won't eat dinner anymore.