Pot Roasted Indonesian Chicken

Ugly food’s Sayur Lodeh paste is the hero of this dish, offering fragrant flavours of Indonesian cooking in one jar, saving on time but definitely not on taste! I love this type of cooking, healthy with minimal effort that creates amazing results. It’s a recipe adapted from the “Feel Good Food” cookbook by Valli Little, an icon in the Australian food industry. And feel good it is, lusciously moist chicken served with an aromatic coconut broth so good you could drink it on its own (in fact I do).

Serves 4/5

Effort: Easy

Prep: 15mins

Cook 1h15mins

Ingredients

• Ugly Food Sayur Lodeh paste

• 1.6kg Whole Chicken

• 500ml Chicken broth/ stock

• 400ml Coconut Cream

• 400g Baby Potatoes

• 200g Greens Beans

• 1/2 White Cabbage

• 1 Lime

• 1 Tbsp Fish sauce

• 1 Tsp Brown sugar

• 1 Large red chilli

• Coriander

• Kefir lime leaves (optional, if you can source them)

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180c fan /200c / 400f / Gas 6

2. Rinse and pat the chicken dry with paper towels. Starting from the back end of the chicken, use a teaspoon upside down to loosen the skin from the meat across the surface of the chicken

3. Spoon 2 tsp of the Sayur Lodeh paste between the meat and the skin near neck. Use the spoon to spread it a bit, then to finish it off, use your finger/hands on the skin to spread the mixture as far and evenly as you can.

4. Place the chicken stock/broth, 3Tbsp of paste & kaffir lime leaves (if using) into a dutch oven or deep sided baking tray.

5. Place the chicken in the broth, season & cover with a lid. Roast for 45 minutes. Remove the lid, add the coconut cream and potatoes (some will be fully submerged in the broth others will sit on top of the broth) then roast for a further 30 minutes, or until juices run clear when pierced.

6. Remove the chicken from the broth and cover loosely with foil to rest for 5 minutes.

7. Add the juice from the lime, fish sauce and sugar. Stir until the sugar is dissolved. Add your green beans & cabbage and place the lid back on, leave to stand until they have softened.

8. Serve the chicken with the broth and veggies on the side, or cut up the chicken and serve it in the broth. Sprinkle chopped coriander and sliced chilli over the top.

Hints & Tips

When choosing your chilli the larger ones tend to not be as hot. If you prefer more heat you can add a whole chilli to the broth mixture in step 4 and cook.

Use coconut milk for a lighter broth.

If you don’t have baby potatoes you can use normal potato cut into chunks.

Add a little colour to your skin by taking the lid off your chicken for the last 15 minutes.

Also, I have been known to take the potatoes out of the broth when the chicken comes out and put them back into oven to brown slightly.