Chicken Recipes

CHICKEN BAKED IN A SALT CRUST

This unusual dish is extremely easy to make. Once it is cooked, you just break away the salt crust to reveal the wonderfully tender, golden brown chicken underneath.

INGREDIENTS
1 corn-fed or free-range oven-ready chicken, 3—3’/2 pounds
bunch of mixed fresh herbs, such as rosemary, thyme, marjoram and parsley
7 cups coarse sea salt
1 egg white
1—2 whole heads of baked garlic, to serve

SERVES 4

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Wipe the chicken. Put the herbs into the cavity, then truss the chicken.

2. Mix together the sea salt and egg white until all the salt crystals are moistened. Select a roasting pan into which the chicken will fit neatly, then line it with a large double layer of foil.

3. Spread a thick layer of the salt in the foil-lined pan and put the chicken on top. Cover with the remaining salt and shape neatly around the chicken, making sure it is completely enclosed.

4. Bring the foil edges up and over the chicken to enclose it and bake in the oven for 11/2 hours. Remove from the oven and let rest for 10 minutes.

5. Carefully lift the foil package from the pan and open. Break the salt crust and brush any traces of salt from the bird. Serve with baked whole heads of garlic. Slip each clove from its skin and eat with a bite of chicken.