Clay Pot Orange Chicken
A couple of months ago, I took possession of a Römertopf clay pot. Clay pot cooking is fairly ancient and used in various parts of the world, but Römertopf clay pots in particular come from Germany. They are (self-evidently, I'd think) made of clay and, because they are soaked before use, when placed in the oven they create a very moist environment and food can be cooked more quickly than usual at a very high temperature while still staying juicy. After all the good things I'd heard about them, the geek in me insisted I try this "new gadget". Sadly, my first experiment with it was a disaster. I decided it was the recipe's fault and not that of the clay pot, but it's taken me a while to get around to trying again. I chose a recipe I found online, Clay Pot Orange Chicken.
Just before placing in the oven.
I pre-prepared potatoes for roasting then, as I'm still unsure of how things are meant to be with clay pot cooking, I followed the recipe to the letter. The chicken, before placing in the oven, looked like — well — a raw chicken about to be placed in the oven. In it went, and I sat down to wait until it was time to prepare a salad.
Or so I thought. After ten minutes or so I realised I had put the clay pot in a hot, not cold oven. The cold oven is extremely important as the clay can crack when placed in a hot oven. Fortunately, mine didn't — but it threw the estimated cooking times out because 90 minutes from cold was clearly going to be something different from very hot. Hrm.
After lots of humming and ha-ing and fussing about, I eventually decided it was ready and it really tasted superb. It was very succulent and tender with interesting flavours. Next time I wouldn't serve it with roast potatoes (I'd use steamed rice as the sauce has a quite intense flavour of its own that rice would complement better) but there will definitely be a next time.
Clay Pot Orange Chicken
I had no idea what to expect with this dish and, while I wouldn't serve this with roast potatoes again, in all it was a nice surprise.
Serves 4
Ingredients
- 1 (1.4kg–1.8kg) chicken
- salt
- pepper
- 1 clove garlic, crushed
- 2 medium oranges, peeled and sliced (reserve the rinds)
- ½ cup orange juice
- ¼ cup soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger root
- ½ teaspoon allspice, ground
- 1 tablespoon brown sugar, optional
- arrowroot
Directions
- Presoak clay cooker, top and bottom, in water for fifteen minutes.
- Wash chicken, inside and out, under running cold water. Rub inside of chicken with salt, pepper, and pressed garlic. Stuff with peeled orange slices.
- Place chicken in pot, breast down. Grate the orange rind and sprinkle over chicken. Add orange juice, soy sauce, ginger, allspice, and brown sugar. Place covered pot in cold oven. Turn temperature to 250ºC (480ºF). Cook 90 minutes.
- Ten minutes before done, remove from oven, pour liquid into saucepan. Return the pot, uncovered, to oven for final 10 minutes to brown the chicken.
- Meanwhile, bring sauce to a boil and thicken with arrowroot. You may want to add a bit of brown sugar to the sauce, to taste.
Posted by Vicki on Friday, December 11, 2009 at 06:29 PM in Recipes and Chicken and Clay Pot.
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