Kitty Coles Recipe for Slow-Roasted Thai Citrus Chicken with Cucumber and Peanut Salad

Inspired by Thai gai yang, this chargrilled chicken is marinated in a salty-sour sauce, then cooked in its fat and served with a zingy salad.

Kitty Coles

Welcome to a live stream from my kitchen, where I eat this dish while writing about it. It's inspired by Gai Yang, a Thai dish of chargrilled chicken marinated in lemongrass, lime, coriander, garlic and fish sauce, and served with a crunchy, GP salad. I serve mine with jasmine rice, to soak up all the aromatic juices from the chicken and dressing. Don't be put off by the ingredients list: it may look long, but you probably have plenty of it in your cupboard. Over and out.

Roast Citrus Chicken with Cucumber and Peanut Salad

I like to cook chicken legs slowly like this, so the skin gets crispy and everything cooks in the chicken fat that collects at the bottom of the tin for maximum flavour. I also love how the chicken falls off the bone.

Preparation 20 minutes

Marinate for 20 minutes

Cook for 1 hour 20 minutes

Serves 4

for chicken

2 lemongrass stalks, roughly chopped

3 cm pieces of root ginger, peeled and roughly chopped

A handful of fresh coriander, roughly chopped

Juice of ½ an orange (other half for dressing)

Juice of 1 lemon

4 garlic cloves, peeled

½ tablespoon fish sauce

2 tablespoons light soy sauce

1 teaspoon white pepper

1 tablespoon caster sugar

4 tablespoons neutral oil

4 chicken legs or 8 thighs

5 bananas shallots, peeled and halved long

salt

For the cucumber salad

Juice and juice of 2 lemons

2 fresh Makroot lime leaves, very finely chopped

1 tablespoon fish sauce

1 red pepper, seeded and finely chopped

A pinch of salt

1 cucumber, julienned or thinly sliced

Finely chop a handful of coriander leaves, pickle leaves and stems

A handful of Thai basil, leaves picked (or mint leaves if you can't find them)

50g roasted peanuts, finely chopped, and more to serve

to serve

200 grams of jasmine rice

Oven 240C (220C fan)/465F/Gas 9. To make the marinade add the lemongrass, ginger, coriander leaves, orange and lime juice, garlic, fish sauce, soy sauce, pepper, sugar, a pinch of salt and oil in a blender and make a paste. . Rub three-quarters of the marinade over the whole chicken, then set aside for at least 20 minutes.

Place the shallots on a baking tray with a pinch of salt. Add remaining marinade and two tablespoons of oil, toss to coat, then place over chicken in a single layer.

Roast for 25 minutes, then add 100ml water to the tray and reduce the heat to 190C (170C fan)/375F/gas 5 and cook for a further 45 minutes, until golden.

Cook rice according to packet instructions. Once cooked, carefully pour a few tablespoons of the chicken juices from the tray, add a pinch of salt and stir briefly with a fork.

To make the salad, squeeze the lime into a bowl, then squeeze in the lemon juice, juice of the remaining half of the orange, finely chopped lime leaves, fish sauce, red pepper and salt. Give it a quick mix, then chop the cucumber as you like and add to the bowl with the dressing and herbs.

Season the peanuts with a pinch of salt, then toss with the cucumber salad. Serve the chicken with some roasted shallots, a scoop of rice a dollop of salad and an extra sprinkle of peanuts on top.