Happy Australia Day! It’s 37 degrees right now. Can you imagine that?

I intend to make a Filipino barbecue recipe, Chicken Inasal, but I can’t face the grill. So I used the air fryer instead. Thank goodness for that invention. Apologies to the purist but I had to do it. It’s my kitchen anyway.

I used chicken thighs with skin on. The recipe calls for a whole chicken, cut into parts. I already have chicken thighs, so why not use that. They turned out so juicy and tender. My air fryer can cook fresh chicken in 15-20 minutes at 180 C. Yes, that’s what the manual says. So I followed that. I cooked it bursts of 10 minutes each side. Best decision I made and the color is even with a little charring, the way I like it.

Here is the recipe that I used.

Chicken Inasal

What you will need:

1 whole chicken cut into 6 parts (legs, wings, breasts)

Marinade

• 1 head garlic macerated

• 2 tbsps. chopped ginger

• 1 tbsp. brown sugar

• 1/3 cup sinamak native coconut vinegar

• 10 pieces calamansi extract the juice

• 3 stalks tanglad lemon grass, julienne

• salt and coarsely ground pepper

Basting Sauce

• 1/2 cup margarine or butter

• 1/4 cup atsuete annatto seeds oil

• salt and pepperlarge

• bamboo skewers

• charcoal for grilling

Method:

1. Put all ingredients for the marinade in a large bowl. Mix and add the chicken pieces. Lightly rub the marinade on the chicken. Marinate for 30 minutes in the fridge and let it sit for another 30 minutes to reach room temperature.

2. Meanwhile, make your basting sauce in a saucepan on low fire. Combine margarine/butter and annatto seeds until well -infused and have a deep orange color. Turn off heat then add a small amount of salt and pepper to taste.

3. After marinating the chicken, score the parts with slits near the bone. Skewer the meat and cook over hot charcoal grill, skin side down, basting once in a while. Do not flip more than twice so as not to have a drier meat. Alternatively, you can bake in oven at 200 C for 35 -40 minutes, turning once also.

4. Serve hot together with steamed rice.

There you have it. Now. let’s eat. 😊

❤❤❤

Tess xx