Brine Roasted Chicken with Spice and Herbs

I love roasting meat. The reason I love roasting meat so much is because I get to play with spice and herbs. You can mix and match the spice and you will be surprised with the result!

I have not been cooking for a while and I missed my roasted chicken.  I went to the market today and bought myself a medium big fresh whole chicken. Figured that I have the time so I've decided to brine the chicken first so that the meat will be very juicy after roasting.

Part 1 - Brine Chicken:

• 3 tablespoon each of sugar and salt
• 2 dry Bay leaf

Use a large plastic container, big enough to store the whole chicken. Dilute the sugar and salt in the container and add the whole chicken into the container. Let the chicken swim for at least 2 hours or overnight.

Take the chicken out from the container 1.5 hours before roasting. Wipe dry the chicken with clean cotton cloth and side aside.

Part 2 - Ingredients to prepare before roasting :

 Vegetable :

• Pumpkin/Butternut Squarsh - Cut into cubes
• 1 or 2 sticks of Pasnips - cut into 1cm
• 1 or 2 sticks of Carrot - cut into 1cm
• Celery - sice into semi long slice with 1.5cm (you can use Fennel instead of celery if you want)
• 1 large Brown Onion - Slice it
• Olive oil 
• Seasalt and Blackpepper

Use a large roasting glass plate which is big enough to store the vegetables and chicken.  Put all the vegetable in to the plate add some olive oil, salt and pepper. Mixed it together and set aside.

Part 3:

• Butter - half stick. melt in pot and set aside.
• Cinnamon - 1/2 tablespoon
• Ground Coriander Powder - 1/2 tablespoon
• Paprika - 1 tablespoon
• Fresh/Dry Rosemary
• Fresh/Dry Thymes
• Black Pepper
• Fine Salt

Use a brush and spread the melted butter all over the chicken.  Put a bunch of Rosemary and Thyme into the chicken cavity. Rub chicken with Cinnamon, Coriander Powder, Paprika and Blackpepper all over the chicken. Sprinkle fine salt all over the chicken (just like picture below :

Once you have spread all the ingredient onto the chicken, combine the chicken and vege together (picture below) and add some herbs onto top of the chicken.

Oven reheat 180C for about 15 minutes.

Use 1 piece of aluminium foil and cover the whole chicken. Send it into the oven 200c for 40 minutes. This way, the chicken will not over burned before cooked.

Remove the foil and continue to bake the chicken for 180C for 35 minutes. Take the chicken out from the oven and slice the thigh area to see whether there's any juice flowing. make sure the juice are clear in color. If you want to make it cook further, send the chicken back to the oven for another 20 minutes (max).

Split the chicken from the vege and send the vege into the over for another 20 minutes.

While waiting, use an aluminium foil and cover the chicken tight. Let the chicken rest so that the juices will return back to the meat.

After 20 minutes, enjoy!