Roast chicken is something I make really often. It's easy to do and the variations are unlimited so one never gets bored. So once again I had a full chicken waiting to be roasted and I was casting around for inspiration. And I chanced upon Shriya Shetty's Mangalore Chicken Ghee Roast done roast chicken style.
Shriya (@chiashetts on Instagram) runs a restaurant and a bakery in Mangalore and does pop ups wherever she gets a chance. She also makes Mangalore Ghee Roast Masala for sale, in small batches (which gets sold out super fast!). This is just the kind of inspiration I was looking for and much to my delight, I also had packets of her utterly delicious home made ghee roast masala in the fridge.
Oven Roasted Mangalore Chicken Ghee Roast
1 whole chicken, skin on
4 onions
1 packet Mangalore Ghee Roast Masala
Salt
Ghee
Wash the chicken inside and out and pat it dry.
Slice two onions and halve the other two
Make gashes in the fleshy parts of the chicken to allow salt and the masala to penetrate properly. First sprinkle salt all over the bird and inside the cavity too. Now apply the ghee roast masala all over the chicken not forgetting the cavity. Tuck in masala under the skin wherever possible. Work gently so you don't tear the skin.
Refrigerate the chicken covered and let it marinate for a few hours or even overnight.
When you're ready to roast, remove the chicken from the fridge and bring it up to room temperature.
Preheat the oven at 150C.
Place the sliced onions in a layer in a baking dish spread just enough for the chicken to sit on. Tuck in the halved onions into the cavity of the bird and then place the bird in the baking dish. Drizzle ghee all over the chicken. Cover the dish as tightly as possible with aluminium foil.
Put the baking dish on an oven tray and set it to roast for an hour at 150C. Let the bird cook long and slow for juicy and tender results. If the chicken is large, cook for longer.
You can check for doneness in between - just be careful while handling the hot and heavy baking dish. To check, pierce a fleshy portion near the bone like the thigh with a sharp knife. If the juices run clear you chicken is cooked. Baste with melted ghee when you open to check.
Remove the foil and roast the chicken for another 15 to 20 minutes to finish the cooking (sometimes the meat around the cavity stays a little under done) and to crisp the outside. Remove the onions from the cavity at this point and place them in the baking dish to caramelise a little while the chicken cooks.
I served this oven roasted ghee roast with neer dosas I ordered from a local restaurant.
There is a certain joy in sitting at the table with a dish of roast chicken redolent of ghee and masala and a pile of neer dosas picking out bits of succulent roast and crisp skin while mopping up that incredible ghee, onions, and masala 'gravy' with soft neer dosas. Aaah!
