Thai-Style Roast Chicken on the Big Green Egg

Thai-Style Roast Chicken on the Big Green Egg

Ingredients

• 1 whole chicken
• 6 lemongrass stalks
• 2 heads of garlic, plus 4 cloves
• 4 red chillies (de-seed or reduce for less intense heat)
• 1 lime
• 6-10 dried lime leaves
• 1 tsp fish sauce
• 2 tsp galangal paste
• 1 tsp soy sauce
• 25g coconut oil or butter
• 25g palm sugar
• 1 to 2 tins (400g) coconut milk, depending on the size of your pan or how much sauce you’d like

Method

1. About 25 minutes before cooking, take your chicken out from the fridge and pat it down with a kitchen towel so it's very dry. Trim off excess fat and prick the skin all over. Remove the tough outer husks of two lemongrass stalks, peel two garlic cloves, and slice a red chilli in half. Place inside the chicken’s cavity
   
   
2. Cut the two heads of garlic in half horizontally and place in the base of a barbecue-compatible roasting dish (like cast iron), along with a lime cut in half. Put the chicken in the roasting dish
   
   
3. Remove the outer layers of two pieces of lemongrass, bash it flat with the end of your knife’s handle, and thinly slice. Place in a mortar and pestle. Thinly slice two chillies and crumble half the lime leaves; add it to the mortar and pestle and grind the mixture until it’s a fine paste
   
   
4. Grate two cloves of garlic and add it to the mortar and pestle, along with the fish sauce, galangal, and soy sauce
   
   
5. In a small saucepan on the hob, melt the coconut oil or butter, add the spice mix from the mortar and pestle and whisk. Simmer over low heat until fragrant, then add the sugar and whisk until dissolved
   
   
6. Pour two-thirds of the mixture from the saucepan over the chicken on the roasting pan
   
   
7. Set your Big Green Egg up with the ConvEGGtor plate and close the lid. Heat the Egg to 160°C. When it’s up to temperature, roast the chicken for 40-60 minutes, depending on the size of your chicken. Then bump the Egg to 180°C for a further 20 minutes to crisp up the skin. Lift the lid from time to time to check on the chicken: If it looks like it’s drying out, baste the chicken by carefully tilting the roasting dish to one side (glove on!) and spooning the sauce from the side of the pan over the top of the chicken a few times. Repeat as necessary
   
   
8. Once the chicken is cooked, add the remaining lime leaves (crumbled), lemongrass stalks (outer husks removed), and the last chilli, sliced in half, to the roasting pan with the chicken. Then slowly pour in the coconut milk. Simmer for 5-10 minutes, basting the chicken as you go (as above). The less time you cook, the creamier the texture of the sauce; a longer cook time will reduce the chicken fat and spices more, giving it a thicker, more traditional pan sauce texture that’s richer in flavour

BK Tips

• Laurence, our Islington Store Manager and this recipe's inventor, likes to serve this chicken shredded into a bowl with rice, but it’s a versatile dish that will go well with a number of simple sides
  
  
• To prepare this dish in the oven, follow the instructions above but place chicken in the oven, in a hob-compatible roasting pan, at 160°C for 40-60 minutes depending on the size of your chicken. Then increase the temp to 180°C for 20 minutes to crisp up the skin. Once cooked, remove the pan from the oven and place it over medium heat on the hob. Add the remaining spices and coconut milk, and reduce until your desired taste and consistency, for at least 10 minutes, stirring occasionally
  
  
• If you only have fresh galangal and not paste, grate finely