Simple Roast Chicken with Figs and Onions


Fresh figs are hard to come by in Singapore but when you do get them, they're so lush that it seems a bit of a shame to just eat them plain. I bought a box of 4 figs and I had already done the "eat 'em raw and fresh" to 2 of them and I didn't want to make jam (with only 2 figs?) so I decided to cook them!

As it is my birthday, my mum happily bought a whole chicken leg for me to do whatever I wish with it for lunch (I was on leave). Thus, the laziest but tastiest manner to cook a chicken leg was to roast it! I love this recipe because the sweetness from the figs is neutralised by the slightly tangy savoury odour of onions but the natural caramelisation of the onions added depth in flavours.

Ingredients:
1  chicken leg
2  figs, sliced or quatered
1/2 red onion, sliced (you can replace this with white/pearl onion)
salt and pepper to taste
1 tbsp olive oil

Method:
  1. Preheat oven at 200 deg C
  2. On a baking tray, placed the sliced onions at the bottom and then half of the sliced figs on top of that.
  3. Place the chicken leg on top of the figs and onions
  4. Stuff some fig slices under the skin of the chicken and place a few on top of the leg
  5. Drizzle the olive oil
  6. Sprinkle salt and pepper to taste
  7. Place the chicken inside the oven and reduce the temperature to 170 deg C
  8. Roast for 20-30 minutes (or until it's fully cooked...because it really depends on the size of the chicken leg)

As you can see, I placed my silicon mat under the chicken but you can use aluminium foil or just place all the ingredients in a cast iron pan. I used my silicon mat to even out the cooking and it's a lot easier to clean up. Also, the drippings from the figs and chicken did not dry out that fast so the bottom part of the chicken was cooking in some of it's own juice.

I used large sea salt crystals in this recipe and I really liked how crunching into them gave a salty contrast to the sweet figs! All in all, I really enjoyed this simple but yet satisfying meal. I don't mind roasting a whole chicken with this but lemme wait for the next batch of fresh figs to come into Singapore.

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