About this recipe
Chicken marinated in calamansi, cane vinegar, lemongrass, ginger and garlic, then grilled over charcoal while being basted repeatedly with annatto oil, which turns the skin a deep orange and leaves the meat sharp and aromatic underneath. It is not ordinary barbecue chicken: there is no sweet soy or banana-ketchup marinade, no tomato, and the colour comes from annatto rather than from sugar caramelising. The style is closely associated with Bacolod in Negros Occidental, where it is served with rice, the basting oil spooned over, and a dipping sauce mixed at the table.
Recipe facts
- Yield
- 6 servings
- Prep
- 25 minutes (plus 4 hours marinating)
- Cook
- 30 minutes
- Total
- 295 minutes
- Difficulty
- Moderate
- Spice
- Mild
Allergens Contains soy (in the table dip). The chicken itself contains no common allergens.
Development draft. This is an untested development recipe from the cookbook project. It has not been kitchen-tested, and the quantities and timings are the author’s working draft rather than a verified result.
Ingredients
The marinade
- 3 1/2 lb (1.6 kg) chicken, cut into 8 pieces, or 8 bone-in thighs and drumsticks
- 1/2 cup (120 ml) calamansi juice, from about 20 calamansi, or 1/3 cup (80 ml) lime juice plus 2 tbsp (30 ml) orange juice
- 1/2 cup (120 ml) cane vinegar
- 4 stalks lemongrass, tough tops removed, bruised and chopped fine
- 2 in (5 cm) fresh ginger, grated
- 1 whole head garlic (about 12 cloves), minced
- 1 tbsp (18 g) salt
- 1 tbsp (12 g) brown sugar
- 1 tsp (2 g) ground black pepper
The annatto basting oil
- 2 tbsp (18 g) annatto (atsuete) seeds
- 1/2 cup (120 ml) neutral oil
- 3 tbsp (42 g) butter or margarine
- 3 cloves garlic, crushed
- 1 tsp (6 g) salt
To serve
- Steamed rice, or garlic rice
- Soy sauce, calamansi and crushed chilli, for mixing at the table
- Spiced palm vinegar (see the condiment cross-reference)
Equipment
- Charcoal grill, or a heavy ridged grill pan
- Shallow non-reactive dish for marinating
- Basting brush
- Instant-read thermometer
Method
- Whisk the calamansi juice, cane vinegar, lemongrass, ginger, garlic, salt, brown sugar and black pepper together in the non-reactive dish.
- Add the chicken pieces and turn to coat thoroughly, working the marinade under the skin where you can. Cover and refrigerate at least 4 hours and up to 12. Longer than 12 hours and the acid begins to make the surface of the meat chalky.
- Make the annatto oil: warm the annatto seeds in the neutral oil in a small pan over low heat 3-4 minutes, until the oil is deep orange. Strain out and discard the seeds, then return the oil to the pan, add the butter, crushed garlic and salt, and warm until the butter has melted. Keep it warm.
- Light the charcoal and let it burn down to an even bed of grey-ashed coals with no flame, or heat the grill pan over medium-high until a drop of water skitters across it.
- Lift the chicken from the marinade and let the excess drip off. Discard the used marinade.
- Grill skin-side down first, 6-8 minutes, until the skin is marked and releases from the grate without tearing. Do not move it before it releases.
- Turn, and from here baste generously with the annatto oil every 3-4 minutes, turning each time. Continue 18-22 minutes in total, until the skin is a deep burnt orange with dark charred edges.
- Check the thickest part of a thigh: it should read 165°F (74°C) and the juices should run clear. Breast pieces will be ready several minutes before dark meat — take them off as they are done.
- Rest 5 minutes, then spoon over any remaining warm annatto oil.
- Serve with rice, and let each person mix their own dip from soy sauce, calamansi and crushed chilli.
From the foundations
The book pairs this recipe with the following, from the sauces, sambals and pastes that open the collection.
The Complete Edition
Chicken Inasal sits in the Philippines chapter
The book carries this recipe in full alongside the rest of the Philippines chapter, the pastes and dips it is built on, and the twenty-seven pantry studies that open the collection.
In review with Amazon KDP
Both editions have been submitted to Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing and are currently in review. Submitted prices are $9.99 for the kindle edition and $49.99 for the paperback. Neither is on sale yet, and prices are as submitted rather than final.