Beggar's chicken

As the story goes, the original dish was cooked in clay, but this salt-crusted version, a favourite of actor Richard Roxburgh, offers the same effect — steaming the chicken in an aromatic cocoon to infuse it with Asian spices.

Credit: Kitti Gould

• serves

  4-6

• prep

  20 minutes

• cook

  1:30 hour

• difficulty

  Mid

Ingredients

• 1.5-2 kg chicken, cleaned and trimmed

Salt crust

• 400 g salt
• 600 g plain flour
• 50 ml vegetable oil
• 300 ml warm tepid water

For chicken dressing

• 50 ml mirin
• 100 ml soy
• 25 ml sesame oil
• 20 ml black vinegar
• 2.5 cm ginger, sliced
• 2 limes, zest peeled
• 1 orange, zest peeled
• 2 star anise
• 2 cinnamon quills
• 1 bunch coriander stems
• 2 long red or green chillies
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 1 eschallot finely diced
• 1 spring onion, finely sliced on an angle

Resting time: 30 minutes

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 200°C.
2. To make the salt crust, rub the salt and flour together, add oil and water then knead to form a dough. Let it rest, then roll out to 5 mm thickness.
3. Mix all the dressing ingredients together and allow to sit to infuse for a few minutes. Rub the whole chicken in the dressing, stuffing the inside with the large pieces of coriander, zests, chilli and spices. Reserve leftover dressing.
4. Over the rolled out salt crust, place a few layers of foil large enough to wrap around the chicken. Place the chicken breast side down onto the foil then wrap, leaving a small hole. Pour in the leftover marinade liquid through the hole. Seal the foil and then the dough around the bird trying to encase as much dressing as possible.
5. Bake chicken in oven for 1.5 hours, then remove to let it rest for 30 minutes.
6. Break crust open and peel away to reveal chicken; carve and serve.

Watch how to make this recipe on Memory Bites with Matt Moran.

Cook's Notes

Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55-60 g, unless specified.