And finally the glaze for the chicken. Through a number of recipes and their history, I learned that in the 19th century, the famous French chef Auguste Escoffier listed the glaze (glace de viande) as a sauce derived from the sauce veloute. Veloute is one of the five ‘mother sauces’ of French cuisine, the other four being bechamel, hollandaise, espagnole, and tomato. The glaze is made by reducing the stock of meat until it is very thick and glossy, and can be applied to the meat before and during the bake. You can add herbs, spices, and other thickening sauces to the glaze if you like.
This baked bird will come out succulent and tender from the inside and golden, glossy and crisp on the outside
My party reminded me of the way Egyptians and people from other cultures got together to share a meal in ancient times. My kitchen was swarmed with friends enjoying themselves. The chicken, when out of the oven, had a lovely golden gloss and was tender and succulent.
I’m sure that you’re now waiting anxiously for the recipe to bake your very own chicken.
Glazed Baked Chicken
Ingredients
For the Marinade
Thimble size ginger
10 cloves of garlic
2-3 tablespoons of white vinegar
1 teaspoon of paprika
A tablespoon of olive oil
Half or 3 quarter teaspoons of salt
Whole lemon cut into thin slices
Crushed bell pepper
Fresh herbs of your choice
For the Glaze
1 cup of stock of any meat or vegetables
3 tablespoons of honey
1 tablespoon of mustard
2 tablespoons of Korean BBQ sauce — if not available, use any other thick sauce
1 tablespoon of rice/apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon of soy sauce
Juice of half lemon
Method
Chicken
Clean out the stomach and remove skin so marinade can penetrate deeper. Poke many holes in the chicken with either a knife or fork.
Marinade
Crush ginger and garlic cloves with a pestle and mortar, and add white vinegar, olive oil, paprika and salt to it. Rub the marinade, preferably with your fingers, into the chicken including the inside of the stomach area. Stuff the stomach with herbs, crushed bell peppers and lemon slices; some squeezed into the belly and some left unsqueezed.
Leave for 23 hours in the fridge, but flip the chicken over every five to six hours.
Glaze
In a small pot, combine stock with honey, mustard, rice vinegar/apple cider vinegar, juice of lemon and soy sauce. Stir continuously and cook this until thick and leave to cool. It should not be runny or it won’t stick to the chicken.
Baking
Bring the chicken out of the fridge after 23 hours and leave for one hour at room temperature before baking. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Remove the marinade the chicken is sitting in, and add to the glaze and heat glaze again until thick. Stir all the while.
If it crystallises, add a little water, and heat yet again and stir until soft. Put chicken, breast up, into a greased baking tray. Apply a quarter of the glaze to it with a basting brush and place chicken into the oven for 30 minutes. Remove chicken, flip over and apply another quarter of the glaze to the back of the chicken, and place back into oven for 20 minutes.
Remove chicken again and evenly apply the rest of the glaze onto the back and other visible areas. Put chicken back into the oven for 10-15 minutes. When the glaze, on the floor of the baking tray, starts to sizzle and is somewhat charred, it is time to take the chicken out of the oven and enjoy.g
The writer is an entrepreneur based in the US and interested in travelling, painting, creative writing and food
Published in Dawn, EOS, February 2nd, 2020