Chicken with rice, sweet potato and pepper stuffing, coriander and coconut sauce
Roast chicken and stuffing – eastern style – with coconut ‘gravy’. And no hassle.
Equipment
Ingrediënten
FOR THE CHICKEN
- 125 g 4½oz basmati rice
- 1 tbsp groundnut sunflower or rapeseed oil
- ½ onion very finely chopped
- 3 garlic cloves grated
- 1 red chilli halved, deseeded and finely chopped
- 150 g 5½oz sweet potato, peeled and cut into cubes
- 1 small red pepper cut into squares
- 1 bunch of coriander stalks and leaves separated and finely chopped
- finely grated zest of 1 lime
- salt and pepper
- 1.8 kg 4lb chicken
- 10 g ¼oz unsalted butter
FOR THE SAUCE
- ½ tbsp groundnut sunflower or rapeseed oil
- 1 small onion finely chopped
- 2 x 160ml cans of coconut cream
- juice of 1 lime plus more if needed
Instructies
- Put the rice into a saucepan and add water to come just 2.
- 5cm (1in) above the level of the rice.
- Bring to the boil, then boil vigorously until the surface looks ‘pitted’ as if the rice has lots of little holes in it.
- Reduce the heat to very low, cover and cook for about 15 minutes.
- Make sure the rice doesn’t scorch on the base of the pan.
- Meanwhile, heat the oil in a frying pan and add the onion.
- Cook for about eight minutes, until the onion is softening and slightly golden.
- Add the garlic and chilli and cook for another two minutes.
- Scrape this into a bowl and add the sweet potato and pepper to the frying pan.
- Cook until the sweet potato is just starting to get tinged at the edges; it doesn’t have to be soft, it will cook in the stuffing.
- Add this to the onion with the drained rice, the coriander stalks, lime zest and seasoning.
- Leave to cool.
- Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/gas mark 4.
- Stuff the chicken with the rice mixture, pushing it down well into the cavity.
- Tie the legs together if you want to.
- Put into a roasting tin, smear the butter on top, season and roast in the hot oven for 1 hour 20 minutes.
- For the sauce, heat the oil in a frying pan and gently sauté the onion until it is soft but not coloured.
- Pour off the cooking juices from the chicken into a glass jug and skim the fat from the top.
- Add the chicken juices and coconut cream to the pan, season and bring to just under the boil.
- Add the lime juice and coriander leaves.
- Taste to check if you need either more lime or a bit more seasoning.
- Serve the chicken with the stuffing and the coconut sauce.
- I don’t serve any more starch – there is enough in the stuffing – but stir-fried greens are good on the side.