Roasted Lemongrass Chicken

Growing up, we always hosted Thanksgiving dinner for 50 to 100 people over the course of an entire day. We had turkey for breakfast, lunch, dinner and midnight snack. Earlier in the day, we usually cooked the turkey Asian style and serve the slices of turkey in lettuce wraps with vermicelli noodles, chili-lime dipping sauce and crushed peanuts. In the evening, we usually had a traditional turkey meal with the sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes and cranberry relish. Somewhere in between we would dig into the Chinese barbecue turkey.

The day before Thanksgiving, one of my many "cousins" would drop off the turkey at the Chinese barbecue restaurant and have the turkey roasted in the restaurant’s duck roaster. This turkey was usually picked up some time around mid-morning and usually became the second style of turkey for the day.

Unfortunately, over the years, many of my family and friends have moved to other states. Gone are the days where we would move from one house to the next and Thanksgiving was a day long affair. Gone are the days where we would cook four turkeys to feed the “family.”

This is still one of my favorite ways to cook turkey but I don't get to make it very often because I now have Thanksgiving with my gringo friends and they expect a standard roasted turkey without exotic flavors. (The drippings don't make a very tasty gravy either.) When I’m in the mood and do not feel like cooking a whole turkey, I will make it using bone-in turkey breast, Cornish game hens or in this case, a smallish chicken. The lemongrass paste is also very good as a filling for pork roulades.

2 stalks lemongrass, cut into 3 inch pieces
4 kaffir lime leaves
8 green onions
2 inch piece ginger
2 cloves garlic
1 bunch cilantro
handful Thai basil
5 Thai chilies or 2 jalapenos
salt
MSG
Black pepper
1 chicken
1 piece galanga root

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Put all ingredients except chicken and galanga into a food processor and process to medium coarse paste. Alternatively, you can do this in a large mortar with a pestle.


Clean and drain chicken. Season inside and out with salt, MSG and black pepper. Break galanga root into small pieces and mix with the lemongrass paste. Stuff chicken cavity and under chicken skin with paste mixture.


Roast chicken at 425 degrees for 20 minutes, lower temperature to 350 degrees and continue to cook until chicken reaches internal temp of 155 degrees. Take chicken out of oven and allow chicken to reach 165 degrees.