Oriental butterflied roast Chicken!

Well what a treat this was, and a roast chicken cooked and rested in under an hour! I did this with roasties, roast butternut, broccoli and carrot for 10 pp per serving, but it would also be delicious with noodles! The original recipe includes sweet potato but because I was doing 'traditional' Sunday dinner I used ordinary spuds and it went surprisingly well! 

Let me know what you think! 

Ingredients

1.45kg whole chicken

2 garlic cloves

2.5 cm fresh root ginger, grated

2 shallots, chopped roughly

2 tbsps soy sauce

1 tbsp light brown sugar

Juice of 1/2 lime

1 red chilli, de-seeded and chopped

600g sweet potatoes (or regular potatoes) cut into bite sizes for roasting

Low fat spray

So what I does a butterflied chicken look like?

Method

Isn't it a beauty? 

Right here's how you do it.....

1. Start by removing the string and any flappy bits if skin. The flip the chicken over so it's breast side down on the chopping board. Using a good pair of scissors, cut down either side of the backbone, starting at the main cavity end! Then lift the back bone out and bin. Turn the chicken over and press down firmly to flated out the chicken. 

Preheat the oven to 170 deg (fan assisted)

I forgot to take a pic so here's one from the book! 

2. Cut off the ends of the leg and cut through the skin, running down the centre of the breastbone. Get a good grip and remove the skin, breast first then over the legs. (It's like taking off its PJs!!) it also says to take off the skin on the wing but I left it on! 

Again a pic from the book! 

3. Make a marinade by placing the garlic, ginger, sugar, soy sauce, chilli, shallots and lime juice in a dish (big enough to hold the chicken too). Cut a few slashes in the chicken and rub the marinade all over and leave for at least 30 minutes. 

4. Place the chicken in a roasting tin ( I used the dish it was marinating in) and roast in the middle of the oven for 40 minutes. I checked it afew times and basted it with the marinade. I did add about 100ml of water to ensure the marinade didn't dry out.... This then made a nice 'sauce' for the veg! 

5. While the chicken is roasting, toss the sweet potato in low fat spray and place in the oven above the chicken for 35 mins until caramelised. 

6. Remove the chicken from the oven and allow to rest, loosely covered with foil, carve and divide between 4.