Picture from Bestestrecipes |
Braised
Chicken with Mojo Sauce
Ingredients:
For
the brine:
1 (4-5 pound)
roasting chicken
1 gallon (16
cups) water, divided
1 cup kosher
salt
3 lemons,
halved
For
the chicken:
1½ cups sour
orange juice (I recommend “Goya”)
Juice of one
lemon
1 large head
of garlic (about 12-15 cloves), peeled
¼ teaspoon
ground cumin
Kosher salt
and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
2 tablespoons
canola oil
Preparation:
To brine the
chicken, cover the chicken with 12 cups of cold water in a large stock pot.
Heat the remaining
4 cups of water over the stove top or in the microwave until almost boiling.
Add the salt
and stir until completely dissolved.
Add the
salted water to the stock pot.
Squeeze the
juice from the lemons into the water before adding the lemons.
Cover and
refrigerate the chicken for 8-12 hours, but no longer.
To cook the
chicken, combine sour orange juice, lemon juice, garlic, and cumin in a blender
and season generously with salt and pepper.
Blend on
medium to high power until the garlic is pureed and the marinade is foamy,
about 1
minute.
Place the
chicken into a large zipper bag or a plastic with lid recipient and pour inside the marinade over the chicken.
Marinate at
room temperature for two hours, flipping the bag occasionally to distribute the
liquids.
Remove
chicken, reserving the marinade for cooking, and thoroughly pat dry.
Season the
chicken generously with salt and pepper.
Preheat oven
to 350°F.
Heat the
cooking oil in large cast iron skillet over medium-high to high heat.
Add the
chicken and sear as you can, about 3-5 minutes. Pour off excess oil.
Pour the
reserved chicken marinade into the cast iron skillet.
Place the
chicken in the pan.
Cover with
aluminum foil and braise in the oven until chicken is fork tender, about 40 to
55
minutes.
Remove the
chicken to a roasting pan and rest for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, bring the pan
juices
to a rolling boil over medium-high heat.
Cook mojo
sauce until slightly reduced, about 8-10 minutes.
Pour the
excess juices from the resting chicken back into the sauce and season with
additional
salt and pepper, if necessary.
Finish off
the chicken under the broiler for 2-3 minutes to re-crisp the skin.
Serve 4.
This Chicken looks delicious. It's 6:30am and my mouth is watering.
ReplyDeleteOver the summer I got a smoker and have been loving cooking whole chickens.
Thank you for sharing your delicious food.
Jeff
Thank you very much for your visit, comment and your nice words to my recipe. I will visit your blog and drop some comment over there. Also, if you allow it, we may exchange some recipe, because I would be very interested in featured some of yours on our blog.
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