Slow Roasted Chicken with Soy Sauce and Lemon Juice

The combination of soy sauce and lemon juice may seem strange, but this recipe produces a very juicy chicken that really showcases the natural “sweetness” of the meat. Therefore, it is best to get a free-range chicken – you really can taste the difference!

The soy sauce flavour is light in the end, and the lemon flavour is very subtle. Actually the purpose of the lemon juice is to make the meat extra tender. After slowly roasting the bird, the meat really will melt in your mouth.

You’ll need:

• 1 whole chicken (roughly 1.4 Kg or equivalent amount of meat on bone)
• 1-4 bulbs of garlic depending on how much you like the flavour of roasted garlic*
• 1 lemon
• 50 ml soy sauce**
• 120 ml water
• 2 tablespoons light sesame oil (use 1 tablespoon if you can only get the dark one)
• 2 tablespoons honey

Follow these steps:

1. You have a few options with the use of garlic:
   1. have them as peeled cloves,
   2. have them as unpeeled cloves,
   3. or use the whole bulb with the root stub cut off.
2. Dissolve honey in water.
3. Put the chicken, breast side down, into a deepish roasting dish and pour everything else over. I usually put some of the garlic inside the chicken. It’s preferable to use to a ceramic or glass dish. It’s good to have the dish snug. You can also put some baby potatoes in around the chicken if you’d like.
4. Cover with a lid or foil, and bake at 150 C for 2-2.5 hours.

I usually roast this in Big Bill my clay oven at 120 C overnight. The meat absolutely falls apart – just how we like it! If you are cooking at 120 C, it’s better to par-cook the potatoes or omit them because the potatoes takes higher temperature to cook them tender.

* A note on garlic: the most I’ve used was 4 bulbs, inspired by “Chicken with Forty Cloves of Garlic” from Fig Jam and Lime Cordial. Highly recommended! 🙂

** About soy sauce: if you can manage to get a Taiwanese one (and you should, because they smell the best and are a lot less salty than ones from China), you can use up to 100 ml.