Recipe: Salt Baked Chicken (2)

Salt Baked Chicken

1 fryer chicken - 3 lbs
6 lbs rock salt
Parchment paper
1/2 cup peanut oil
1 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons dark soy sauce
1 whole star anise
2 tablespons sherry
1 tablespoon fresh ginger - minced
1 tablespoon fresh garlic - minced
2 green onions - chopped.

Preparation: Wash chicken and pat dry.
Swab cavity with the sherry.
Stuff with ginger, garlic, salt, star anise & green onions.
Seal with clip or string.
Rub outside of chicken with dark soy sauce.
Allow to stand until soy sauce is absorbed.
Wrap chicken in 3 layers of parchment paper.
Tie with string.
Coat outer layer with peanut oil.

Baking: In a wok or a large pot, heat rock salt stirring periodically, until
it begins to brown.
Place the wrapped chicken in the rock salt, spooning some of the salt around
the sides and over the top.
Cook for about 10 minutes.
Turn over the chicken, cover with rock salt (but always make sure at least a 2"
layer of salt is under the chicken)
Cook for another 10 minutes.
This cooking time will give a moist, slightly underdone chicken.
Increase baking time to 15 minutes on each side for well done.

Remove chicken from salt.
Strip off paper.
Allow to stand for 15 minutes to cool and congeal juices.
Cut in half, then into bite sized pieces.
Serve with a soy dip.

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This one is from an English, chicken cookbook I have.

Chicken baked in a salt crust.

3 1/2 lb. corn-fed, oven-ready, chicken
Bunch of mixed herbs such as
Rosemary
Thyme
Marjoram
and Parsley
7 cups coarse sea salt
1 egg white
1-2 whole heads of baked garlic, to serve.

Preheat oven to 350*F.

Wipe the chicken.
Place the herbs into the cavity, then truss the chicken.

Mix together the sea-salt and egg white until the crystals are moistened.
Select a roasting pan into which the chicken will neatly fit.
Line with a double layer of foil.

Spread a thick layer of sea-salt into the foil lined pan.
Place the chicken on top.
Cover with the remaining salt and shape around the bird.
Make sure it is completely enclosed.

Bring the foil edges up and over the bird to enclose it.
Bake in the preheated oven for 1 1/2 hours.
Remove from oven and allow to rest for 10 minutes.

Carefully lift the foil package from the container and open.
Break the salt crust and brush any traces of salt from the bird.

Serve with baked, whole heads of garlic.
Slip each clove from its skin and eat with a bite of chicken.