Villa Chicken

This is a recipe that I've adapted from a chicken dish at the Villa Tavern in Cape Town, a Portuguese restaurant where my husband and I first met in May of 1995. Although it's not exactly the same, I like the idea of the chorizo sausage under the skin and in the cavity, and as I had some chorizo sausage left over from the pasta dish I made the other night, I decided to use it last night with the whole chicken I was planning on roasting.

INGREDIENTS

For the rub:
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
1 teaspoon ground cumin
½ teaspoon ground coriander
½ teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon red chilli flakes or ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon crushed dried garlic
½ teaspoon black pepper
enough olive oil to make a runny paste

Rub the paste all over the chicken with your hands. Give it a good massage. Make sure you have a sink full of water because you will want to give your hands a good wash afterwards.

cut one lemon into quarters and put 2 of the quarters into the cavity of the chicken.

slice the chorizo up finely and insert under the skin of the breast and anywhere else you can get to. If you have any pieces left over, insert them into the space between the legs and the body. Tie the legs together with some string to hold them in place. You can also put some chorizo into the cavity with the lemon. Sprinkle salt on the chicken and the skin will be very crispy.

In the roasting pan put 1 glass white wine, 1 cup chicken stock, 1 onion cut up and some cloves of garlic. Then throw in a handful of coriander leaves. Also tuck some coriander leaves into the cavity of the chicken.

Place the chicken onto a rack in the roasting pan.

Roast for about 45 mins, depending on the size of the chicken, at 180° C

To make gravy put the contents of the roasting pan into a small container and blend. Sieve into a small pot, season if necessary (probably not) and add the juice of the other lemon half. Reduce the gravy and if necessary thicken with a little flour or corn starch dissolved in cold water. Do NOT put flour straight in because it WILL get lumpy.

This chicken works very well with any kind of potatoes.