Chicken with Honey, Lime, & Chile Glaze

I had a craving for something homey and delicious so I decided to make a few roasted chickens. This first one features a sweet, sour and spicy glaze. The next, which I won't discuss today, is brined in a Mexican flavored brine. I'll discuss the chemistry behind brining in a future post. Anyhow, for this chicken, I asked the butcher to spatchcock it but they just butterflied it. The distinction, AFAIK, is that a spatchcocked bird has the backbone and sternum removed and a butterflied bird is just cut in half. Anyhow, the reason to do either one is so that it cooks more evenly.

The glaze recipe is from John Ash Cooking One-On-One: Kitchen Secrets From A Master Teacher by John Ash. I don't really have an opinion on this book. It's organized in chapters which deal with specific techniques and then specific ingredients. As always, please try to use a naturally raised bird.

The Glaze:
1/2 cup fresh squeezed lime juice
1/4 cup honey
1.5 tablespoons of Ancho or Guajillo chile powder
.5 teaspoon of ground coriander
.5 teaspoon of ground cumin
.5 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 4-5 pound chicken, cleaned
Salt and peppr

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Liberally season both sides of the chicken with salt and pepper. Place the bird, skin side up on a baking sheet or roasting pan.

Whisk together the ingredients for the glaze. I found that microwaving the honey to melt it and then whisking in the other ingredients made for an easier mixing process.

Toss the bird into the oven. Let it cook for, say, 1/2 an hour. I'm sorta improvising the cooking times. The recipe says to start brushing the bird with the glaze after 20 minutes but I disagree because the bird still has 30 minutes before the thighs are cooked through and the glaze has a tendency to burn if left on the bird for that long. After the initial glaze, keep brushing more on every 10 minutes. Don't let the glaze puddle on the skin. Just paint the bird with the brush...it's actually pretty cathartic.

After 50 or so minutes of total cooking time (poke the thighs and see if the juices run clear), remove the chicken and let it rest for 10 mintues. Cut it up and serve. If you want, keep a little extra glaze on the side to use as a dipping sauce.

Time- About an hour.
Price- REALLY depends on the price of the bird. My naturally raised chicken was $3.99/lb. So, about 20 bucks for my monster roaster. The rest of the ingredients are cheap.

Serves 5 comfortably.