Roast a Chicken with Curry

I have been packing my own lunches the past couple of weeks.  It is both cheaper and healthier than eating out, and the quality of my lunches has greatly improved.  Instead of buying lunch meat, I have been roasting a chicken on Sunday night.  This serves as both an excellent Sunday dinner and lunch for a better part of the work week.

Plain chicken can get boring pretty quick so it is important to try something besides just salt and pepper.  I recommend a Curry Roasted Chicken.

Curry Roasted Chicken

Ingredients

• Whole Chicken -Buy a whole chicken, preferably of the non frozen free range variety, that will feed you for a few days.  Since my wife doesn't eat meat I only need a medium sized bird.  If you are feeding two or more people size the bird accordingly.  
• Madras Curry Powder
• 1.5 Cups Yogurt - I use plain goats milk yogurt, but any Greek or Mediterranean style yogurt would work just fine.
• 1 Large Onion
• 1 0r 2 Large Carrots - Of late, the carrots at the store have been huge so one fits the bill for me.
• Fresh Ginger
• 2 cups of white wine, or 1 beer (lager works great)

Directions

Mix together the yogurt with 4 table spoons of curry, a table spoon of fresh chopped ginger, and a 1/3 cup finely chopped onion (save the rest of the onion, un-chopped, for later).  If you like a bit more spice add some red pepper flakes to the mix.

Now, rub down the chicken with the yogurt spice mix.  Be sure to jam it under the skin above the breast meet.  You should be able to separate the skin from the breast by poking your fingers around.  This will help get the flavor into the meat.  Once you have coated the whole chicken let it sit for at least an hour.  You should put it in a roasting dish surrounded by the rest of the onion and the carrots (both coarsely chopped).

Pre-heat the oven to 400 and put in the roasting pan with the chicken, breast side down.  Once the outside is brown, flip the chicken over and brown the other side.  Pour a cup or two of wine around the outside of the bird over the onions and carrots.  You can rub some butter on the skin at this point too.  Now turn the oven down to 350 and let if finish.  At this point I can tell if a bird is done by look and feel, but the best test is to use some tongs and grab the thigh right next to the body of the bird and twist.  If the leg and thigh pop right off at the joint the bird is done.

Let the bird rest for at least 10 to 15 minutes before cutting into it.

Serve With

The best way to serve this is with some rice and a good chutney.  A nice spoonful of plain yogurt is also a good addition and helps temper the heat of a spicy chutney.  

I recommend drinking a nice French Chardonnay or a good lager (Sam Smiths Organic is excellent).

Lunch

You can take leftover rice and chicken for lunch.  You can also make a great curried chicken salad by mixing some shredded chicken, mayo, currants, curry powder and chopped pecans.

Enjoy....