I know, who needs another roast chicken recipe?

Actually, you do! I love roasting chickens whole not because like what others say, the juices are better retained etc etc, but because I don’t have to chop the chicken into pieces.. very leh ceh (troublesome)! I like roasting chickens also because they’re cheaper than other meats. Griller chickens between 800g to 1.2kg usually cost less than $4 (I recently bought 3 for $7.90 from Giant) and can feed my family of 4. Jason gets the breast meat, I take one thigh, Ah-mm takes the other, any 88 loves the chicken wings!

So I was searching for chicken inspirations the other day and came across Jamie Oliver’s recipe: Chicken in Milk. Sounds yummy! Some bloggers who have tried the recipe went as far to comment that this was the best chicken they’ve ever tasted/in the world. The chicken is indeed pull-apart tender (look at the pics!), and the milk and lemon combi is creamy but not that creamy (I describe things so well, I swear!).. very fragrant and unlike any other chicken I’ve made.

I seasoned the chicken with butter, black pepper and rosemary, and browned it with my air fryer before placing it in a pyrex dish to be roasted in the oven. If you don’t have an air fryer, please get one/have someone get you one for Christmas. If that’s not possible or if you wish to wait for next year’s Christmas for I don’t know what reason, you can also brown it in a dutch oven or large pan. Next, you grate the zest of one lemon all over the chicken, place half a lemon inside the cavity, pour in the milk, scatter some garlic cloves, and basically, your job is done.

Although the recipe didn’t call for it, I covered the baking dish with aluminium foil before baking, so that the chicken would be moist and tender. I removed the foil in the last fifteen minutes for the skin to become slightly crispy. There are a few sides I can think of to serve this with: mushrooms, beans, cabbage, carrots, potatoes, asparagus.. even rice. I chose to saute some shitake mushrooms and french beans in garlic and spooned them over the chicken when the roasting was done.

One of the best chicken dish I’ve tried.. not THE WORLD’S BEST, but very good, although the combination of milk and lemon sounds weird. =) I varied the recipe as I didn’t have sage and cinnamon, but it was still delicious. Try it, quite fool-proof! See how tender the meat is.. you won’t go wrong!

The post Jamie Oliver’s Chicken in Milk Recipe appeared first on Budgetpantry | Singapore Mummy Blog on Food, Recipe & Baby.

I guess it is time to admit that despite owning (and loving!) my airfryer for the longest time, I have NEVER cooked a whole chicken in it before. (I use the normal size 1st generation 9220 Philips Airfryer if you wish to know.)

I always roast chicken using the oven because although it take a long time (at least an hour even for spring chickens), it is quite idiot proof and I don’t have to worry about it burning/turning out uncooked/unedible because I cook it in there ALL THE TIME. Old habits die hard, I guess, and I am resistant to change in this sense (or am just lazy to figure out another way, really). “Why take chance?” I say to myself each time <-- this isn't really me too. I don't know who's taking over my keyboard. There's also supposed to be a full stop there after "time" and I just don't feel like placing it there today. Maybe I just feel like rebelling against my day job as an editor. I'm gonna write run-ons and make no sense at all in all my other writing. Like now. (p/s- any spelling and punctuation mistakes you see in this post are uh, totally intentional.) I "don't usually" break rules as you can tell, or if you know me well.

So why airfry the chicken this time, then? I wouldn’t have, if not for the fact that the oven was in use FOR A GREATER GOOD at around dinner time. I was baking a glorious chocolate chip butter pound cake to satisfy my own cravings.

You see, for (really, really) unfortunate #swaymax reasons, I have been grounded the past week. I cannot go to the office (but still have to work from home thank you very much). I cannot go out. I cannot go ANYWHERE. AND I WANTED TO EAT CAKE. My cake withdrawal symptoms were so severe, I told the girls I reallyyyy HAD TO EAT CAKE at 5.30pm and started baking at 5.32pm, never mind that it was almost dinner time. To achieve your goals, they say, you have to take chances. Go all out. Oh and here’s the cake by the way.

The baking wasn’t about to be done until 6.55pm. I couldn’t afford another hour from 6.55pm for the roast chicken to cook in the oven. I did the next logical thing. Airfry the bugger. I was hesitant. I mean, I had my chocolate chip butter pound cake, but Ah-mm and 88 and the husband needed to eat right? And my loyal airfryer has never failed me before.

And was I glad I took the plunge. The spring chicken cooked beautifully in the airfryer. The skin, the CRISPIEST it’s EVER turned out. The meat, moist and juicy and tear-apart tender. The cooking time was shortened by half. There is no way I will cook spring chicken any other way again.

The marinade is really simple. Just rub some salt, oyster sauce (I know, I know, but I like the savoury-ness and colour oyster sauce it lends to roast chicken), rosemary and black pepper all over the chicken. The cooking part is even more simple. Airfry for 30 minutes at 180C. And that’s it. I turned it over midway through the cooking time and grilled some bell peppers along with it. I also had some leftover gravy from lunch that I prepared for another dish (HAKKA YTF, if you have to know) which I now added some rosemary to (I’m brilliant), and it went perfectly with the chicken. You can totally leave out the gravy part if you want. More on the Hakka YTF gravy. It’s not as crazy as it seems. I ran out of tau cheo (fermented bean paste) so I left it out, so the gravy was legit enough to be transformed from Chinese-style to “Western”, with a sprinkle of rosemary and a longer cooking time. I let it cook for a bit more over the stove top so that it’ll reduce and the flavour will be more compacted.

Sorry I don’t have better pictures as the sun was setting and the lighting was terrible. I also don’t have proper lighting equipment for photo taking at dinner time. But I am sure I’ll make this again in broad daylight, maybe over the weekend. So I can have nice pictures to update.

In the meantime, make this airfried chicken! The airfryer rocks. PHEW! That was a long post. I guess I just love story telling!

The post Airfried Rosemary Spring Chicken appeared first on Budgetpantry | Singapore Mummy Blog on Food, Recipe & Baby.