Chili Rubbed Roasted Chicken

Marinated chicken baked on a bed of onion curry masala. A delicious starter or a side dish.

For the third day of the marathon, coking with alphabet “C”, I have chili rubbed roasted chicken. I made this chicken 4 times (including today) in the last couple of weeks. We liked it a lot.

This is such an easy recipe to prepare with a little bit of planning ahead and only time consuming part of this preparation is baking. Chicken pieces are marinated in a simple chili, cumin, lime juice marinade and baked on a bed of roasted onion paste.

This would be a good recipe to prepare for parties as well if the onion paste is made ahead of time. On the day of the party, all that needs to be done is place everything in a tray and bake it, checking on it every 10-15 minutes.

Source: Life’s Ambrosia
Total Time: 55 – 65 minutes
Preparation: 10 – 20 minutes
Baking Time: 45 minutes
Serves: 2

Ingredients:
Marinade:

• 5 Chicken Drumsticks or 1.2 lbs. Chicken Drumsticks **
• 3 tbsp. Oil
• 2 tsp. Chili Powder (adjust to taste)
• 1 tsp. Cumin Powder
• 1 tsp. Coriander Powder (opt)
• 1 tsp. Salt
• 1 tbsp. Lime Juice
• Pinch of Turmeric

** The recipe called for drumsticks and thighs but I used only drumsticks as we prefer those to thighs. The recipe also called for leaving the skin on but I removed it. I rather add a tablespoon (tbsp.) of extra oil than cook with the skin on.

Curry:

• 1 – 1 ½ tbsp. Oil
• 2 cups chopped Onions
• 1 tsp. Ginger Garlic Paste
• 1 tsp. Chili Powder (Adjust to taste)
• Little Salt
• 1 tsp. Coriander Powder
• Turmeric
• ½ – 2/3 cup Chicken Stock (I used water today and in the past used vegetable stock)
• 2 Jalapeno Peppers Sliced
• 2 tsp. Oil to be used when baking (opt. and might not need it)

Preparation:

• Remove the skin of the chicken and make 3-4 deep gashes on the drumstick.
• Make a marinade by mixing together all the ingredients listed under marinade and pour it over the chicken pieces. Marinate the chicken for 4-6 hours or overnight. I once marinated chicken for 1 hour and it tasted fine. However, I do recommend marinating for more than an hour.
• Take oil in a pan, heat it and sauté the onions until light brown. Add rest of the spices and sauté for few more minutes.
• Cool the onions and make a paste using the stock or water, which ever you are using.
• Pre-heat the oven 450F.
• Take a baking tray and wrap it with an aluminum foil. Use a tray that is oven & broiler safe or a serving dish that is broiler safe. I used my cake pan hence decided to wrap it with a foil.
• Spread the onion paste in the tray, sprinkle sliced jalapeno peppers, arrange the drumsticks over onion paste and pour any remaining marinade over the drumsticks.
• Pour 2 tsp. of oil reserved for baking, over the chicken pieces. Today I made more onion paste than I did in my previous preparations. 15 minutes into baking I felt I might need to add more oil and did so. But I think I could have omitted it. As you can see in the picture, it was a little too much. If you do not mind indulging yourself, then go ahead and pour the oil over the chicken pieces.
• Bake the chicken for 15 minutes at 450F and flip the drumsticks. Reduce the temperature to 350F and bake them for another 20 minutes flipping and basting the chicken pieces every10 minutes. After 20 minutes of baking at 350F, turn on the broiler and broil for 10 minutes, flipping and basting the drumsticks 5 minutes.
• Transfer to a serving dish and serve. Drumsticks can be served with rice and the curry goes well with rice.

Note:

• Today I used 2 cups of onions for more curry or gravy. It tasted fine but I liked this preparation better when I used only ½ of the onions yielding less curry. If you are using 2 cups of onions as mentioned in the ingredient list, I would recommend using a wider pan so that the while drumsticks are roasted, so would the curry or cut down on the stock/water that was used to grind the onion paste.
• Oven temperatures vary from oven to oven, please use your discretion here.

Event Entries: This goes to my own event Chicken Feast