My Favourite Roast Chicken with Malt Whisky and Mixed Herbs

This is a regular dish in my household, I have cooked it at least 20 times or even more in the last 3 years, so many times that I have lost count literally. Whenever I need to roast a chicken, I would only use this recipe and nothing else. In fact I have not looked at other roast chicken recipes ever since I perfected my way of roasting chicken. The 2 most important things you need to have for this roast chicken is brandy or whisky and mixed herbs. But if you don't have brandy or whisky, you can try using D.O.M, Yomeishu or Elixir d'Anvers. Rum may also work, but I have never tried it. Hard liquors such as brandy or whisky are expensive and high in alcohol content of course, but we are just using 2 tablespoonfuls, so it won't knock you out even after finishing the whole chicken. :)

Today I am using a malt whisky called The Famous Grouse (aged 18 years), it happens to be the only bottle of hard liquor I have at home, seems to be a gift from one of my hubby's friends. This time round, I also did a slight variation from the original recipe, instead of using honey which I always did, I use Korean Rice Syrup; and instead of using a whole chicken, I use 2 big chicken thighs and 2 big chicken fillets. 

Recipe adapted from my old post dated May 2010, but reproduced here for easy reference.

Ingredients
2 big chicken thighs and 2 big chicken fillets 

Marinade
2 tbsp hard liquor such as brandy or whisky
2 tbsp light soya sauce
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp honey or 2 tbsp Korean Rice Syrup/Corn Syrup
1 tsp fine salt
0.5 tsp white pepper

0.5 tsp each of thyme, rosemary, oregano and basilicum
(The original recipe used 1 tsp of mixed herbs but I prefer to use 4 different types of herbs to give it an intense aromatic herbal flavour. If you have to buy the bottled dried herbs and you prefer to buy just 2 types, then just stick to thyme and rosemary, make it 1 tsp each)

Method
1. Mix all the marinade ingredients together in a bowl. Place the chicken thighs and fillets in a oven-proof glass dish, use a fork to prick a few holes in the chicken pieces, pour and rub the marinade all over them. Set aside for at least 1 hour.

2. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees celsius.

3. Before putting in the oven, use a spoon to bask the chicken with the marinade in the glass dish. Then place it in the oven and let it bake for 30 min at 200C. 

4. After 30 min, spoon the marinade all over the chicken again, turn the chicken around and continue to bake for another 15 min or until golden brown.


Note : 
- The roast chicken is ready once you see that it has turned golden brown and the marinade is sizzling and you can smell the aroma of brandy or whisky in the air. 

- If you prefer to use one whole chicken, do refer back to the old recipe for detailed steps. Using cut chicken thighs and fillets will only take you 45 min instead of at least 1 hour for a whole chicken. You may need to make more marinade (1.5  to 2 times) for a whole chicken if you realise that there is insufficient marinade to bask the chicken.

- If you use honey, just use 1 tbsp will do and watch out that the chicken skin doesn't get burnt easily, because honey cameralizes easily, so you gotta set the timer and turn the chicken around half-way through to get it evenly roasted.


I am submitting my post to Aspiring Bakers #28: Chicken Feast hosted by SSB of Small Small Baker.