Palita vs. the Turkey Alternative

The Chicken

The weapons:
Sea Salt
Table salt
2 tablespoons dried Coriander
2 tablespoons Cumin
1 tablespoon of white pepper powder
1 bunch Cilantro (optional)
1 stalk of lemongrass
1 cup dark soy sauce
4 cloves of garlic
2-3 navel Oranges
20-30 Kaffir lime leaves
Glad Oven Bag


I think my parents raised me to hate turkey or something because no one in my family eats it. Not only do we not eat it, we hate it. We did do turkey for a few years, but no one ate it. We did three cornish hens one year, and last year we did alaskan king crab legs, but this years was as tradditional as we're going to get. I wonder what we'll do next year.

So here's this year's alternative.

Orange and Thai Herbed Chicken

I'm sorry this recipe isn't perfect, but I did my best :P

Brine -ing the chicken.














Mix 1 cup table salt to 1 gallon water, squeeze 2 oranges, and 20 kaffir lime leaves.
Soak for three hours.

Take chicken out of brine and pat dry with paper towel. Rub chicken with 1 cup soy sauce. Then rub chicken with 2 tablespoons of cumin, 1 tablespoon of sea salt, white pepper powder, and crushed coriander. Stuff chicken with 4 cloves of garlic, 1 cut up orange, 4 kaffir leaves, and 1 stalk of lemongrass.

Google "how to tie up a chicken" and follow the instructions. Place tied up chicken in a GLAD oven bag - don't use any other bag. I know a plastic bag sounds like a horrible idea for the oven, but it steams the chicken perfectly, and none of the juices burn to the pan and go to waste.

Bake at 350 degree until chicken reaches 160 in the thickest part of the breast. (My 8 pound chicken took roughly 3 hours). Leave the bag open, brush chicken with olive oil and broil for ten minutes until skin becomes a nice golden brown.

Let chicken sit for 30 minutes before carving. I have no pictures of the carved chicken, mainly because... i let my brother do it... and it wasn't very... presentable afterwards. lol. It was delicious none the less.

Much to my embarrassment....I roasted the chicken upside down. Considering, nothing else went horribly wrong, I was quite proud of myself. Nothing was burnt. I didn't drop the chicken on the floor AND best of all... no one got food poisoning. The breast side down did allow for the juices to run to the bottom of the oven bag and simmered the breasts until it was fall off the bone good. Too bad it made it difficult to carve. I think I might even stick to roasting my poultry upside down from now on.



ciao!