This Thai roast chicken infused with mind-blowing Thai flavors is the perfect holiday meal and it’s guaranteed to be loved by everyone – kids & adults alike!
This Thai roast chicken is nothing but pure love! It brings together two of my most favorite things – whole roast chicken and Thai flavors! The freshness of Thai flavors has already won me over; hence I already knew this Thai roast chicken would turn out to be a showstopper!
And indeed it did! If the pictures aren’t speaking to you already, then let me assure you that this Thai roast chicken will never fail to impress anyone! Be it the fussiest kid or an ever-complaining adult!
To make it more user-friendly, I spatchcocked the chicken which reduces cooking time as well as makes it much easier to carve out the portions. This size of chicken along with a fresh Thai salad will conveniently feed a family of two adults and two kids leaving some left over for next day’s chicken salad.
You can also serve this Thai roast chicken as an appetizer by carving it in smaller portions and then follow it up with sticky jasmine rice and a Thai chicken curry – red or green. It would be a soulful delight for your friends & family that they will keep raving about for long!
If you are new to spatchcocking a chicken, then I recommend you head over to my earlier roasted spatchcock chicken recipe where I have described how to spatchcock a chicken in detail. It’s not as difficult as it may sound!
At the same time if you like traditional whole roast chicken, you can follow this same recipe to make a whole Thai roast chicken and it would turn out as flavorful as the Spatchcocked version.
Only adjustment you can do is to insert a whole lemon and a garlic head into the cavity to flavor the bird entirely.
The marinade of this Thai roast chicken contains the basic but quintessential Thai ingredients which are epitome of freshness and can enlighten your mood on any gloomy day! There are lemongrass stalk and coriander roots as the primary Thai aromatics which take this Thai roast chicken to a different level.
If you find it difficult to get coriander roots in your locality, you may use the green coriander stalks along with leaves as a close substitute. Since Indian recipes use a lot of fresh coriander, it’s easy to get hold of coriander roots anywhere in India.
While making the marinade, I suggest you to taste it before applying it to the chicken for the right amount of seasoning. Fish sauce and dark soy both are quite salty and any additional salt must be added sparingly.
You may lightly season the chicken before marinating with very little amount salt and pepper instead of adding salt to the marinade.
I would recommend to let the chicken sit with the marinade for about an hour, but if you want a roast chicken quickly without the waiting time, then this Thai roast chicken is the one to go for! That makes it even a perfect meal for weeknight! Isn’t it total win-win?
- Whole chicken – 1, about 1.5 kg (3 lbs.)
- Lemongrass stalk - 2, pale part only finely chopped
- Coriander roots - 4 roughly chopped
- Garlic – 10 to 12 cloves, roughly chopped
- Fish sauce – 3 tbsp
- Brown sugar – 1 tbsp
- Dark soy sauce – 1 tsp
- Ground white peppercorns – 1 tsp (or ½ tsp ground black peppercorn)
- Salt if required
- Preheat your oven to 180 C / 340 F and place the wire rack at the center of the oven.
- To make the marinade, preferably use a mortar and pestle to pound the lemongrass stalk (the white portion of the lemongrass plant), coriander roots and garlic cloves to make a coarse paste; it need not be very smooth.
- Next add fish sauce, brown sugar, dark soy sauce & ground pepper to the lemongrass-coriander paste and stir to mix everything evenly.
- To spatchcock the chicken, remove the backbone with sharp kitchen shears. Then flip the chicken over to bring the breast side facing upwards. Then push down on the breast to flatten it down and your spatchcock chicken is done!
- Lay the chicken flat on a roasting sheet which is lined with foil for easy cleanup and keep the breast side up.
- Then drizzle the marinade over the chicken and massage it to evenly coat all over the bird. Once done, cover the chicken with aluminum foil, place it in the preheated oven and roast for about 25 minutes.
- After about 25 to 30 minutes, take the chicken out of the oven and remove the foil. Use a brush to baste the chicken with the cooking juices which must have oozed out on the roasting sheet.
- Then place the chicken back in the oven to roast for another 15 minutes or until chicken is cooked through but this time without the foil. The chicken is cooked when the leg meat juices run clear when pierced with a knife or the internal temperature reaches 165 F when a thermometer is inserted into the thickest part of the meat.
- Once the chicken is cooked, allow it to rest for 5 minutes before carving. Cut the chicken into breast and legs portions and serve on a platter with a spicy dipping sauce of your choice! Enjoy!
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