Chicken Inasal is a wonderful Filipino grilled chicken recipe that is full of flavour from lemongrass, ginger, garlic and calamansi or lime juice. It's time to break out the grill and get grilling for lunch or dinner but a word of warning: this grilled chicken is so delicious and the smell of it cooking will drive you wild and bring your neighbours around! This is a pushy recipe Dear Reader.
In Tagalog, Inasal means means char-grilled or roasted. An early mention of Chicken Inasal is found in photographer Felix Laureano's 1895 book, Recuerdos de Filipinas. In it he documents the culture and daily life of Iloilo and Panay. Published in Madrid, Spain, the book features a photo of a calenderia (food stall) that lists inihao nga manuc among its offerings. Laureano described inihao nga manuc as Spanish pollo asado aka grilled or roasted chicken that is now known as chicken inasal. You can use a whole chicken or chicken pieces. I used chicken thigh marylands in this recipe.
Tips For Making Chicken Inasal
1 - The main flavours in chicken inasal are coconut vinegar, lemongrass and calamansi and the chicken is brushed with annatto or achiote oil. Coconut vinegar is a milder, sweeter vinegar than other vinegars. I had some coconut vinegar in my pantry as I like cooking Jamaican food and I think it's worth seeking out (you can find it at Asian grocery stores). You can substitute it with rice vinegar if you aren't able to find coconut vinegar.
2 - One of the ingredients for Chicken Inasal are annatto or achiote seeds. These seeds turn oil red and impart a relatively mild flavour to the chicken. I show you how to make annatto oil using annatto seeds. You can find these at Asian or Mexican grocery stores. If you can't find them there really isn't a substitute. I would just baste the chicken in garlic olive oil instead, the colour won't be as yellow but it will still taste great.
3 - You can make the marinade 1-2 days ahead of time (I make it whenever I have some free time) and keep it in the fridge. Then the chicken only needs 1-3 hours of marinating but you can also marinade it overnight if you want to too. My marinade is pink because I used red onions.
4 - I used skin-on chicken marylands because I think dark meat stands up to the grill well. It's usually served with the skin on but you can remove the skin if you want to.
5 - Always grill chicken inasal on medium heat, never high heat as the chicken will burn on the outside before the inside will cook. Count on around 45 minutes total cooking. Also bring the chicken out of the fridge 30 minutes before you grill it.
6 - Serve Chicken Inasal with rice (I love making an annatto rice using the oil left in the saucepan from making annatto oil).
7 - Chicken Inasal is also served with a simple dipping sauce which is a must! It is made with soy sauce, coconut vinegar and lime juice. It doesn't taste fantastic by itself but when you dip the chicken it's amazing!
8 - If you don't want to use Lift or soda, sub it with 1 cup of water, 1 tablespoon lemon juice and 1 tablespoon of sugar.
9 - If you don't have a grill you can also roast these chicken pieces. Roast each chicken maryland for 40 minutes at 200C/400F fan forced but watch that it doesn't burn from about 30 minutes.
I loved this dish but if I can offer you any advice it's to make sure that you have enough limes because limes can sometimes give you nothing or they can be quite juicy. I used up all of my limes for the marinade and then wanted to make the dipping sauce too but they were all gone, some limes only giving up a scant half teaspoon of juice.
I asked Mr NQN to ask our neighbours if anyone had a spare lime. He said that our neighbours Nick and Vicki did and would bring it over. An hour later Nick knocked on the door holding a precious lime. I found out that they actually went to the store to buy the lime for me which was totally unexpected and so amazing of them! They have two kids and they both work super busy jobs and I did not expect that at all so I was very grateful for my lime. And the lime that they got was a perfect specimen with plenty of juice in it. I had just enough time to photograph this before the light disappeared. I wish I could have passed over some chicken over the fence to say thank you.
So tell me Dear Reader, do you ask your neighbours if they have something if you run out? Have you ever tried Chicken Inasal?
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