GRILLED CORIANDER & LIME CHICKEN

Rachel Allen made this. Yes the pretty Rachel Allen, with the charming unplace-able accent, whom I always associate with  cakes, pies, cookies, pastry and all things sweet, nice and dainty. And with daisies. Whom I would never place on the same page as fish sauce.

Then one day I caught her making a grilled chicken dish. What a surprise. It was an Asian inspired grilled/roasted chicken dish too. With fish sauce. It was very, very good. FM (Family Members) thought it was sedaaaaap and they kept requesting me to make it again and again. And again. Which is a treat because the aroma of the coriander, lime, lemon grass, ginger, garlic just floated, flirted and flounced with me all around the house. As fragrant as a field of breeze blowin' daisies.

So, my friends, bookmark this grilled/roasted chicken recipe. It'll make us all breeze blowin' happy.

What I found different about this grilled/roasted chicken was that the chicken pieces were slashed at intervals before marinating. Which meant that the marinade could get right into that meat. Which is a good thing of course. The only apprehension I had was that the finished grilled/roasted chicken would look quite mutilated and dry. No?

No. Everything looked mouth watering and and civilized especially when the melted chicken fat and juices started dribbling on and into the crusty parts  of the juicy, golden roasted chicken pieces. 

Post meal ~ 

In an an ideal world, scrubbing a roasting pan would not be something one needs to stare at and contemplate over after a meal. But since it isn't (an ideal world) I so do (contemplate).  And my little maid mind told me that if  I lined the pan with thick aluminium foil right up to the sides all I'll have to do, when the roasting's over, is to peel off the foil and I will be greeted by a gleaming and spotless roasting pan grinning back at me. Now that makes me breeze blowin' happy. It so do.

The recipe ~ adapted from Rachel Allen's tv cooking show

6 chicken whole legs, skin on
Juice of 5 limes
8 cloves garlic
2 knobs ginger, grated
2 lemon grass, white bulb sliced finely
1 tsp sugar
about 1-2 T fish sauce (I forgot to measure this)
1 bunch of coriander leaves, chopped


Place all ingredients except the chicken parts into a small food processor and blitz until all ingredients are fairly finely processed. Taste for salt, tang and sweetness. Adjust if necessary. It tasted so good even at this point I was swooning.


Slash chicken pieces at 1 inch intervals. The whole legs may be cut into parts consisting of thighs and drumsticks if you prefer. Rub the marinade all over the chicken pieces, place in a large Ziplock and marinate at least an hour or better still overnight.
Preheat oven at 350 F. 

Place the chicken pieces on the rack of a roasting pan. Save the excess juices for later. 

Roast marinated chicken in oven in a roasting pan with a rack for about 45 - 50 minutes. Check for doneness between the slits. If the juices run clear with no hint of pink, it's done. 

Remove chicken from pan onto a platter and keep aside, covered with a piece of foil to keep warm.

Pour the extra marinade into the roasting pan. Scrape the pan with a wooden spoon so that crusty bits at the bottom loosen up. Stir the extra marinade into them. Push the pan back into the oven and allow the marinade to bubble up and thicken some. Once it looks reduced and fairly thick and syrupy pour that over the cooked chicken pieces. Garnish with some chopped coriander.


Serve this mouth watering grilled/roasted chicken with white rice like I did.