Roast chicken with soy and mirin
Mirin is a sweet Japanese rice wine that contains so little alcohol and so much sugar that it is classified as a condiment, rather than liquor, like the well-known Japanese rice wine sake or Chinese Shaoxing wine. Mirin can be substituted with rice wine vinegar, which is also sweetly tart – just add a pinch of sugar to the vinegar. If you want to experiment with Shaoxing cooking wine, keep in mind that it usually contains salt so that it can be sold as a condiment – which means it should be used with discretion when combined with other salty ingredients such as soy.
Serves 6
Preparation time: 10 minutes Cooking time: 1 hour, 15 minutes Oven temperature: 180°C
• 1 large whole chicken (1.5kg)
• 30ml olive oil
• 2 spring onions, coarsely chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 2cm fresh ginger, peeled and coarsely chopped
• ½ lemon
• 30ml soy sauce
• 30ml mirin
• 30ml sesame oil
• 3 extra spring onions, chopped
1 Preheat the oven. Make sure the chicken is well rinsed and dry, then rub it all over with a pinch of salt, pepper and olive oil. Place the spring onions, garlic, ginger and lemon in the stomach cavity, tie the drumsticks together (if desired) then put the chicken – breast side up – on a wire rack in a roasting pan. Pour about 200ml water into the bottom of the pan (see tip); make sure it doesn’t touch the chicken itself and roast for 45 minutes.
2 Beat the soy sauce, mirin and sesame oil together. Remove the chicken from the oven and baste all over with the sauce.
Bake for another 15 minutes. Baste again and bake for another 15 minutes until deliciously golden-brown and cooked through. Then let the chicken rest for a few minutes.
3 Sprinkle the extra spring onions on top of the chicken and serve on a pretty platter with your favourite stir-fry noodles and vegetables or steamed rice and greens.
Tip Water at the bottom of the roasting dish prevents any pan juices that drip down from scorching. You can, of course, add fragrant vegetables such as onion, carrots and celery to the water, especially if you plan to make a gravy.