Without a doubt my favorite way to eat chicken (other than maybe karaage), and not as hard as it looks. Two things: it should look pretty charred on the outside – that’s because of the sugar in the marinade/sauce; and a food thermometer is very helpful here as the cooking time varies chicken to chicken.
Ingredients
- Whole chicken around 4 lbs preferred, spatchcocked
- 25 g salt
- 10 g sugar
Marinade
- 2-3 red thai chilies or habanero or fresno
- 1/2 large white or yellow onion chopped
- 1-2 red bell peppers chopped
- 10 g paprika or gochugaru
- 15 g salt
- 20 g sugar
- Zest and juice of 2 lemons
- 200 g olive oil
- 10 g white wine vinegar
Instructions
- Spatchcock chicken. Mix 25 g salt and 10 g sugar in a small bowl. Rub chicken on both sides with mixture. Let sit at room temperature for half an hour.
- While chicken rests, blend everything for marinade until broken down but not smooth.
- After half an hour, using about half the mixture, liberally brush or spoon on the marinade to both sides. I would do this in a quarter or half sheet pan lined with foil – makes clean up much easier.
- Refrigerate uncovered overnight. Reserve left over marinade.
- Roast chicken at 285 for 45-75 minutes, remove from oven and brush with marinade. This depends on how big your chicken is – if its around 3 1/2 – 4 lbs, I would lean closer to 45 – you’ll be roasting this further so don’t worry about undercooking it at this stage.
- Turn oven to 475 and roast chicken for another 15-20 minutes. Remove and brush again with marinade. Return to oven – turn the pan 180 degrees from where you had it last for even browning and cooking. Roast for another 10-15 minutes.
- Add remaining marinade to small saucepan, bring to a boil, then turn to simmer and let reduce for 10 minutes.
- Once chicken reaches 165 in the breast, remove from oven. Let rest for 10-15 minutes and serve.