Thai Red Curry Roast Chicken
An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott/Not Quite Nigella
Serves 4
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 1 hour 10 minutes for whole chicken (50 minutes for individual pieces)
- 1 whole chicken around 1kg/2lbs (or you can use chicken pieces)
- 2 tablespoons red curry paste (you can also use green curry paste if that is what you have)
- 1.5 tablespoons oil plus extra for drizzling
- 3 kaffir lime leaves, finely sliced
- 2 teaspoons finely chopped lemongrass
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 1 butternut pumpkin, peeled and cut into chunks
- 1 cup uncooked jasmine rice
- 2 tablespoons fresh coriander (optional)
Step 1 - Preheat oven to 200C/400F. Mix the curry paste, oil, kaffir lime leaves, lemongrass, salt and sugar in a bowl. Brush just over half of the mixture all over the chicken and on the pumpkin pieces. Drizzle the pumpkin with a little extra oil. Roast in the oven for 30 minutes.
Step 2 - Meanwhile, rinse the rice in cold water until the water runs clear, add water and steam on the stovetop or in a rice cooker.
Step 3 - After 30 minutes, take the chicken out the oven and brush again with the remaining paste and toss the pumpkin pieces and drizzle a little more oil if needed. Return to the oven for another 30 minutes or however long it needs given the size (a total of 30 minutes for every 500g or 1lb.). If you are using pieces return it to the oven for another 20 minutes.
Step 4 - To make the dirty rice and serve, place the chicken and pumpkin on a serving plate and then add the cooked rice to the juices in the pan. Add some coriander if you want and serve alongside the chicken and roast pumpkin.