Roast cockerel with lime
I like chicken for its delicate taste and lean meat. A whole chicken, however, can be too much for two. Instead of buying legs or fillets, you can also opt for a smaller bird.
In France you can easily acquire poussins or coquelet, the pullet being a young hen and the cockerel a young rooster. The very small poussins, still with duvet instead of feathers, are not really in the market but they do get used in zoos and elsewhere to feed reptiles or carnivorous animals.
The world is unfair, also for the chicken. The poultry industry is more interested in egg-laying hens than macho good-for-nothing roosters and therefore many male chicken young do not get old.
Here I put slices of lime under the skin of the bird, put the remainder in the carcass, and then roast the bird in a special plastic bag with some Ponzu (lemon-flavoured soy sauce).
Ingredients
- One cockerel
- One lime
- Two table spoons of Ponzu
- Pepper and salt
Steps
- Preheat oven to 200 °C.
- Clean the cockerel, loosen the skin from the meat without damaging it.
- Cut two or four slices from the lime and slide this under the skin.
- Put the rest of the lime inside the bird’s cavity.
- Put the chicken in an oven bag, add some Ponzu, tie the bag closed and put it on a baking tray.
- Turn the oven down to 150 °C and cook the chicken for an hour. (No turning needed, the bag keeps the moist around the bird).
- Let the cockerel rest for 10 minutes, carve, add pepper and salt to taste and serve.