Winterly Chicken

Yesterday evening, Toño went to the gym and I jumped in to make dinner. Epic failure. I have never done that dish (Fasolakia Ladera) before and the recipe was totally flawed. Let's forget it and concentrate on something that actually worked. There is a recipe Toño has not only mastered but also improved significantly: chicken cooked in coconut butter with Ceylon cinnamon and oranges. Last Saturday, I asked Toño to cook it and it blew my taste buds into another sphere.

Everything starts with a slaughtered and plucked chicken of a reasonable size. Dab it dry with kitchen paper. Season the chicken with sufficient freshly ground salt and pepper inside and outside.



Stuff the chicken with a big knob of butter, 2 cinnamon sticks, 2 twigs of mint, half an orange cut in slices (with peel) and the juice of the other half. Sew up the hole and put the chicken into an oven-proof baking pan. Preheat the oven to 200°C/392°F.



Heat up 60 g coconut butter together with a cinnamon stick. Pour it over the chicken and cook it for 60 minutes in the oven. While in the oven, pour from time to time some coconut butter over the chicken.

Reduce 4 dl orange juice with 1 tbsp orange flower honey* and a knife point of cinnamon in a pan. Cut the chicken in 8 parts. Pour the syrup over the chicken and glaze for 2-3 minutes in the oven.



For the coconut rice side dish add coconut milk to the water when cooking the rice (1 part coconut milk, 6 parts water). Before serving, sprinkle desiccated coconut over the rice.

* Don't compromise on the honey. It must be orange flower honey. It can't be substituted.