Ancho Chile Roast Chicken

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4.6157

I used dried chili peppers to spice up my roast chicken. The flavor gets into the breast meat, and it’s smoky, not spicy.

Ready in: 1 hour 20 mins

Ingredients

Serves: 4

• 2 dried ancho chile peppers
• 1 roasting chicken (4 to 5 pounds)
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground pepper
• 1 teaspoon chili powder
• 1 lime
• 3 garlic cloves, peeled
• 1 teaspoon oregano
• 1 bunch cilantro

Preparation method

Prep: 20 mins | Cook: 1 hour

1. Bring a small pot of water to boil. Put two dried ancho chiles in the water and continue to boil for 20 minutes. After the first 10 minutes, pre-heat the oven to 450 degrees F.

2. Meanwhile, remove any giblets from the chicken. Wash the chicken inside and out and pat dry with paper towels. Put in a roasting pan and rub all over with the olive oil. Season all over with the salt, pepper and chili powder. Set in pan with breasts facing up.

3. Poke the lime with a fork a few times and put into the cavity of the chicken. (The holes will allow the juice of the lime to come out as the chicken cooks.) Also put in the garlic, oregano and a generous amount of cilantro.

4. Once the chiles have boiled for 20 minutes, remove them from the water and roughly chop them. Dry up excess water with paper towels.

5. On each of the chicken breasts, gently run your fingers between the breast meat and the skin and separate them. Carefully insert 1/2 of the chopped chiles in one of the breast skin pockets, then 1/2 in the other side.

6. Put pan (with chicken in it, duh) in middle rack of oven. Immediately turn heat down to 400 F. Cook for one hour. Check halfway through cooking and turn pan if one side is roasting more than the other.