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Preparation
30 minutes
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Cooking
1 hour
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Difficulty
Easy
Whole roasted chicken has long been a grilled dish loved by many families for its rich, delicious flavor. Let’s get cooking and change up this dish with a simple method of roasting a whole chicken in aluminum foil using a charcoal grill and an air fryer!
Ingredients for Roasted Chicken in Aluminum Foil Serves 3
Local chicken 1.5 kg (whole) Lemongrass 15 stalks Annatto powder 15 g Pepper 10 g (whole pepper) White wine 50 ml
How to choose ingredients
Choose prepared chicken:
To make delicious grilled chicken dishes, you should choose local free-range chickens with a sturdy body and small breasts.
The chicken skin usually has a shiny yellow color and is darker under the wings and thighs.
Especially, the chicken body should not have any scratches or bruises.
Choose live chickens:
- For roosters: Choose roosters with bright red combs, lively eyes, not sluggish. The feathers should be shiny and close to the body. The beak should be sharp, with no signs of mucus at the beak. The legs should be straight and slender; the skin of the legs should be uniformly yellow and shiny. The spurs should be short because long spurs indicate that the rooster is older.
- For hens: Choose hens with bright red combs, yellow legs, smooth feathers, and small pores. Gently press on the hen’s breast; if it feels full, gently press below the breast to feel soft bones, which indicates a young hen. Avoid choosing hens with hard legs, scales, fluffy feathers, large pores, small necks, white or gray skin, many rough spots, and large anuses because they are older hens that have already laid many eggs.
Tools to use
Air fryer, aluminum foil, bowls and plates, mortar,…
How to Prepare Grilled Chicken in Foil
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Prepare the chicken
For live chicken:
Once the chicken has been bled out and is dead, dip it into cold water to soak the entire body of the chicken. Then take it out and rub rice vinegar all over the chicken, letting it sit for 10 minutes to allow the chicken’s pores to open up.
Next, boil water (at a rolling boil) to 100 degrees Celsius, dip the whole chicken into the boiling water, flipping it back and forth, and dip the feet and head as well. Then take the chicken out to pluck the feathers.
For pre-purchased or feathered chicken:
For pre-purchased chicken or once the feathers have been cleaned, if the chicken still has a foul smell due to residual feather follicles, use white wine and salt to rub all over the chicken’s skin, then rinse under running water.
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Prepare other ingredients
Remove the wilted parts of the lemongrass, then smash it.
Put the pepper into a mortar and pound it until it’s broken. Be careful not to pound it too finely.
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Marinate the chicken
You add lemongrass, pepper, 2 tablespoons of salt, and 1 tablespoon of monosodium glutamate into a bowl and mix, squeezing the lemongrass evenly to absorb the seasoning. Next, you place the seasoned lemongrass along with 2 legs into the chicken’s belly.
You mix 1 teaspoon of cooking oil with 15g of annatto powder, then dissolve and spread it on the outer skin of the chicken.
Note: You can also use vanilla powder, annatto color, or lemon juice to make the color of the air-fried chicken more appealing and give it a distinctive flavor. However, depending on individual tastes, you can adjust the ingredients and seasoning to suit.
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Grill the chicken
Grilling chicken on charcoal
First, you wrap a layer of banana leaves around the whole chicken; this will help the chicken meat become more fragrant.
Next, you place the chicken in the center of 3 – 4 layers of aluminum foil that have been laid out and then wrap it up.
You can use firewood to make charcoal or buy charcoal directly from shops at the market and light the stove to get the charcoal burning until it turns red, then place the chicken on the grill for about 50 – 60 minutes until cooked.
Note: After the fire is evenly bright and the charcoal turns red, you should start grilling the chicken. During the grilling process, you should also turn the chicken 2 – 3 times to ensure even cooking.Grilling chicken with an air fryer
In addition to the grilling method mentioned above, you can also customize to make foil-wrapped grilled chicken using an air fryer.
This method is very simple and time-saving; you just need to line a sheet of foil at the bottom of the air fryer, then place the chicken in and set the temperature to 200 degrees Celsius, with a grilling time of 30 minutes for the chicken to cook.
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Final product
The quality of grilled chicken should be just cooked inside, with sweet and fragrant chicken meat, perfectly blended with rich spices. You can serve it with a bit of cucumber or lime salt, which will also be extremely suitable and delicious.
See more
It’s really simple to make foil grilled chicken with charcoal stove and air fryer, isn’t it? Let’s make delicious dishes for our family.
*Refer to images and recipes from: YouTube channel HandmadeVN
