Roasted Chicken with Clementines

Found in the Sunday New York Times, May 5, 2024. Recipe by Genevieve Ko.

A really delicious light roast chicken, the clementines enhance this roast chicken evoking memories of a summer breeze.

Ingredients

7 clementines or tangerines

1 1/2 cups packed dark brown sugar

1/4 cup soy sauce

1 1/2 teaspoons distilled white vinegar

1 teaspoon ground cayenne

1 4 lb whole chicken

8 slices fresh ginger

2 wedges lemon, skin on

Directions

Heat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit

Squeeze the juice from 5 clementines into a bowl, keep the spent peels. Cut the remaining clementines into circles with their peels intact and set aside. Add the brown sugar, soy sauce, vinegar and cayenne to the clementine juice and whisk until the sugar dissolves.

Rinse the chicken and pat dry,

Season the chicken inside and out with salt and pepper. Stuff the clementine peels and 6 ginger slices into the cavity.I also added some lemon wedges too. Place in a large oven proof skillet or baking dish and scatter the clementine wedges and remaining ginger slices around the chicken

Pour the juice mixture slowly over the chicken and then place in the over. Roast for 30 minutes.

After 30 minutes, basted the chicken with the pan sauce, continue roasting, basting every 10 minutes until the chicken is browned and cooked through, 20 to 30 minutes longer. An instant-read thermometer inserted in the thickest part of the breast would register 155 degrees and, in the leg, 170 degrees. The chicken will continue to cook while it rests.

Transfer the chicken to a platter or cutting board. The pan sauce may have thickened, so add a little water and reheat over the stove, stirring constantly.  Discard the ginger.

Serve the chicken whole or carved with the glaze poured all over the meat.