Recipe - Roasted Chicken With Pineapple Curry Sauce

2 Stalks fresh lemon grass;
about 9 inches each
1 Piece gingerroot (about 4
inches), finely cut or sliced up
6 Cloves garlic; peeled,
bashed, and chopped
2 Whole chickens; about 3 1/2
pounds each, rinsed and
dried

PINEAPPLE CURRY SAUCE
1 teaspoon Light olive oil
Three fourths cup Finely minced sweet onion
1 tablespoon India ethmix (recipe
follows) or good madras
curry
1 tablespoon Peeled and grated gingerroot
2 lg Clove garlic; peeled,
bashed, and finely chopped
1 tablespoon Finely cut or sliced up lemongrass
Three fourths cup Lowsodium chicken or
vegetable stock
1/3 cup Frozen pineapple juice
concentrate
One fourth cup Yogurt cheese (recipe
follows)
One half teaspoon Coconut extract
1 tablespoon Thai fish sauce

To prepare the chickens:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Remove the tough outside layer of the lemongrass stalk and cut off the root
end and the dry top. Starting from the root end, cut the most tender,
bulblike part of the stalk into thin diagonal slices.

Combine the lemongrass, ginger, and garlic and divide between the cavities
of the two chickens. Turn the chickens breast down on a plate so that the
seasonings fall against the inside of the breasts. Insert a vertical
poultry roaster into each chicken and stand upright. Tie the legs together
with cotton string and tuck the wings behind the breast. Set the chickens
in a 9 by 13inch baking dish.

If you don't have a vertical roaster, lay the chickens on a rack in a
roasting pan. Tie the legs together with cotton string and tuck the wings
behind the breast.

Whichever roasting method you are using, pour 1 One half cups of warm water into
the bottom of the baking dish. Bake in the preheated oven for 45 minutes to
1 hour, or until the chickens reach 140

degrees F in the thickest part of the thigh. (The chickens in the roasting
pan may take an extra 10 minutes.) Remove from the oven and set aside for
10 minutes. The final internal temperature should be 160 degrees F.

To prepare the sauce:

Warm the oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Saute the onion and the
India Ethmix until the onion is soft and translucent, about 5 minutes. Stir
in the ginger, garlic, and lemon grass, and cook for 3 more minutes.

Add the chicken stock and pineapple juice concentrate, stirring to
incorporate. Cook for an additional 3 minutes. Strain the sauce through a
sieve into a small saucepan using a puree press or the back of a spoon.

Whisk together the yogurt cheese, coconut extract, and Thai fish sauce in a
2cup glass measure. Pour a little of the hot pineapple sauce into the
yogurt mixture and stir to warm the yogurt cheese. Add the tempered yogurt
cheese to the sauce and whisk until smooth. Cover and set aside to keep
warm.

To assemble the dish:

Remove the chickens from the roasting pan and pour the cooking juices into
a fat strainer. Remove the vertical roasters if you were using them. Remove
and discard the skin. Cut the legs and breast meat away from the carcasses.
Put aside 1 leg and 1 breast for another meal. Slice the meat from the
remaining breasts and legs and arrange on a warmed plate. Cover and keep
warm.

Pour the defatted pan juices into a small saucepan and boil vigorously
until the liquid is reduced to about One fourth cup. Allow to cool for a minute,
then stir into the curry sauce.

Arrange slices of chicken on a warmed plate and spoon curry sauce over the
meat.

Yield: 6 servings

Recipe by: Cooking Live Show #CL8980

Posted to MCRecipe Digest V1 #846 by "Angele and Jon Freeman"
jfreeman@netusa1.net on Oct 14, 1997