Roast Chicken: Chili, Garlic, Paprika

I have heard a lot about how great and easy a roast chicken is to make, but I have never actually done it. Most of my trepidation stems from a fear of carving. "No more!", I said last night, as I looked at the whole chickens on sale at Dunnes. I took inspiration from a Peruvian rotisserie chicken recipe that I saw on Serious Eats a week or so back. I lack both a grill and rotisserie device, so I oven roasted it with new potatoes sliced onions, whole garlic cloves and some quartered shallots. I turned it about every 15 minutes or so, and cooked for about an hour and a half I think.

Ingredients:
1 whole chicken (this one was a medium! I don't know what that means)
Paprika
Coriander (moving up my favorite spice hierarchy)
Sea salt, fresh ground black pepper, chili flake (the trinity!)
Canola oil (what I had, olive would be fine)
Juice of one lime
3 cloves garlic, minced super super fine

Take all the ingredients except the chicken and combine in a small bowl. Mix until it is a wet paste. I wish I had amounts for you, but I just eyeballed and smelled it until it seemed right. The recipe I gleaned insight from is here: Peruvian Rotisserie Chicken. Slather the paste all over the chicken, rub it in and set it in a pan to marinade for about 2 hours, or longer if you have the time (I didn't)., w

After 2 hours, quarter/slice the new potatoes, slice the onions into nice half circles, quarter the shallots, and clean about a whole head of garlic of its paper. I stuffed the cavity with the lime halves (after the juicing), and a few cloves of garlic. Make a bed of potatoes, shallots, onions and garlic, and place the chicken atop it. It looks like this.

Roast at about 350 for 90 minutes turning at least 4 times (2 full revolutions). I cut into one of the breasts to check for doneness, but you could easily use a meat thermometer. I left mine at home :(.

It looks like this! Pretty delicious if you ask me. Carve her up. I started with the wings, then the legs, and breasts last. Then I picked her clean. I didn't do a great job, but it was my first try and I don't have a carving knife.


Yum. Feast. This served 4, pretty comfortably I think.