Whole Chicken Roast basted with homemade Apricot & Plum Sauce

Buying OTG has become a boon for us which has opened the door of heaven where we can taste the succulent meat roast. The incredible taste of roasted meat can't be got in a Convection Micro-oven. Now I am a proud Kitchen Queen where I most of the time welcome whole chicken roasts  at our dinner table and my daughter too, often insists to have it. A roasted whole chicken tastes better when you bake it with skin. But the man of the house always prefers skinned chicken. So I have to prepare it always without skin. Last time I tried Balsamic Herb RoastedChicken and that turned out a finger smacking dish. This time I tried a different version of roasting a whole chicken.

This season's last bunch of fresh Apricots and Plums were laying around without any fixed preparation in mind how I could use them. I didn't want to use them in  any dessert. So just the thought came to use them in a savoury dish. So I tried making a sauce out of Apricot and Plum and marinated it with chicken and roasted it. And to my surprise it again turned out a lip smacking dish. We enjoyed the dish till the last bite. So here is the recipe.

Ingredients:

 For the Sauce:

Fresh Apricot- 5-6 (Seeded and Sliced)

Fresh Plum- 5-6  (Seeded and Sliced)

Wine Vinegar: 1/4 cup

White Paper Powder: 1/2 tea spoon

Salt- 1/4 tea spoon (+ more)

Sugar- 3 tea spoons (More or less.  See Notes)

Garlic-5-6 cloves

Olive oil- 1 tea spoon

Dry Onion Flakes- 1 tea spoon (I used store bought)

Water- 1 cup

Marinate the Chicken:

Lemon - 1/2 of one

Salt- 1 tea spoon

Method:

1. First marinate the chicken by rubbing salt and Lemon all over it for an hour or so. Don't forget to slit  the flesh of the chicken with a sharp knife so that the juice of the sauce goes well inside the whole chicken.
2. Let us make the sauce now.  Fry the garlic in olive oil. Add everything under Sauce along with the fried garlic and boil for 8-10mnts. Cool it and make a smooth paste .
3. Pour it over the whole chicken and marinate it for at list couple of hours.
4. Power on the OTG. Set the temperature at 220 C degree. Put the Chicken on the rotisserie.  Don't discard the sauce, reserve. Bake for 30mnts. Then brush the chicken with the remaining sauce and reserve the leftover if there is any. Bake for 30mnts more.
5. Then take out the roasted chicken.
6. In a pan heat a 1/2 tspn oil and add the sauce and cook in low flame till it gets thicken. Glaze the roasted chicken with the sauce and enjoy.

Note:

I had some extra sauce. So I grilled some mushroom and sauteed them with the sauce and they came out real nice..

This is my entry for the Blogging Marathon that we Kolkata Food Bloggers have started. The concept behind it is to post in alternative days in the remaining day of August. At the same time we will have frequent posting and get rid of the drafts those which have been resting in the folders for decades. The Mastermind behind this event is Sayantani who blogs at A Homemaker's Diary.

The other Kolkata Food Bloggers who will be participating in this Marathon are:

1. Amrita - Vishal @ http://amritavishal127.blogspot.in/

2. Archita @ http://architashomecooking.blogspot.in/

3. Indrani @ http://riappyayan.blogspot.in/ 

4. Sayantani @ ahomemakersdiary.com

Balsamic Herb Roasted Chicken

After a lot of discussions and debates I determined to get proved myself whether OTG (Oven, Toaster, and Griller) is better or convection Micro Oven.  So I bought one OTG. During my USA stay I was first introduced to the baking world. And never thought that after coming to India I had to scratch my head and tax my brain so much to choose the right oven. I was so satisfied with the conventional oven in USA that I decided to by the same one after returning back to India. But after coming here the picture was totally different. Conventional oven was not that much famous here. For the buildup ovens the space was the biggest problem. Then came so many different issues that forced me to drop the plan and go for a Convection Micro Oven- All in one. Till date I was totally satisfied with that one when one of my readers asked me that she heard baking cake in OTG was better than the convection MW. I was not able answer her as I didn't have any experience with it. So I shared this question with my foodie friends and foodie groups. And there I found most were recommending for an OTG.  So I did not shuffle my brain too much and bought one OTG. OTG is quite inexpensive and very light weighted.  You alone can carry the machine form this room to that room. And that I found was the best part of it.

The first dish I cooked is this Balsamic Herb Whole Chicken. I was a bit scared when the dish started to get cooking. I hardly move that 1 hour from my kitchen. The outcome was truly very much satisfactory. The chicken was so juicy and didn't have that dryness what we usually got in the convection MW. It was perfectly roasted and tasted awesome. My man and my daughter they relishes the dish till the last bite. Overall from my first experience I was very much satisfied and contended. This is dish is a part of the Italian Cuisine. Once I have seen this kind of recipe where the chicken gets roasted with loads of herbs and lemon basted and baked. So here is my version.

Ingredients:

Whole Chicken-  800 gms to1 kg (I bought a skinned one)

Balsamic Vinegar- 1/2 cup

Dry Herbs (Rosemerry, Thyme, Parseley, Basil, Tarragon)- 1/2 tea spoon each (Herb collection from Urban Flaborz)

Dry lemon Grass- few sprigs

Chicken garlic seasoning- 1/2 teaspoon

Honey- 2 table spoon

Green Chilli Sauce- 1 tea spoon

Sugar- 1/2 teaspoon

Salt - As per taste

Olive oil- 1/2 tea spoon

Sweet red chilli sauce

Whole Garlic  cloves- 4-5

Method:

1. Take the whole chicken and make some  cuts on the body with a knife. Marinate the whole chicken with all the ingredients except the olive oil, garlic  and sweet red chilli sauce for minimum 6hrs. Over night marinating is suggested for best result.
2. Power on the OTG. Set the temperature at 240C degree. Put the Chicken on the rotisserie and bake for 60mnts. Don't discard the juice, reserve.
3. In a pan heat the olive oil and add the garlic. Let it turn slight brown and the add the juice out of the marinated chicken. Add sweet chili sauce and keep on stirring till it gets thicken.
4. Take out the chicken from the rotisserie and then brush the sauce all over it and serve hot with bread/ pasta/ salads or any thing of your choice.
5. I served with pasta stirred in Amul cream.

Note:

1. Whenever you will grill or roast something don't forget to put a tray below it. Other wise the juice dropping from the stuff will mess the bottom of the OTG and it will be very difficult to clean.

2. It is always recommended to glaze roasted chicken/ fish with some sauce for better taste.