Ayam Bakar Berempah / Curry Roasted Chicken

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iii.  Pot-Luck Untuk Cikgu Azri

It is always a happy occasion when my in-laws call up to say that they will be visiting.  Happy because it is not often that my in-laws have the opportunity to drive down to this neck of the woods.  Most have their own jobs and to get everybody to actually find time to travel together is something that does not come up very often.

But immediately after my missus got the call from her sister, we were already planning a sumptuous menu comprising of dishes that were my in-laws favourites.  There were three of them (including my father-in-law) and so there were already three dishes; one favourite dish for each of them.  

My missus said that it would be nice if I made an extra dish that everybody would like.  What else would be the favourite of everyone if not chicken!  So, I decided to make roast chicken; curry roasted chicken! Roasting the drumsticks slowly retained the moisture of the meat and basting them with the marinade increased the flavour!

• 14 chicken drumsticks
• 2 tbs coriander seeds, dry roated
• 2 tbs cumin seeds, dry roasted
• 2 tbs black pepper
• 2 tbs dried chili flakes
• 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
• 4 tbs oyster sauce
• 4 tbs sweet chili sauce
• 1 tsp salt
• 3 shallots
• 3 cloves garlic
• 2 cm ginger
• 1 lemon grass

Place the chicken drumsticks in a large bowl.  Use a coffee grinder to grind the coriander seeds, cumin seeds and black pepper.  Put this mixture along with the dried chili flakes, turmeric powder, oyster sauce, sweet chili sauce and salt with the chicken.  In a blender, blitz the shallots, garlic, ginger and lemon grass until a smooth paste.  Then mix the blended ingredients together with the chicken and spices and leave to marinade for at least two hours.

Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 180 C.  Line a baking tray wit a piece of foil and arrange the drumsticks leaving some space between them.  Reserve about 1 cup of the marinade.  Cook for one hour.  After forty minutes of the cooking time, turn the drum sticks and baste with the reserved marinade.  After ten minutes, turn the drumsticks again, baste and continue cooking.  Serve hot.

Note :  It was a good thing that I managed to take a picture of the chicken drumsticks being roasted because after they were cooked, they disappeared so quickly that nothing was left for me to photograph!