Fihunu Kukulhu

This here is a pretty straightforward Lonumirus based roasted chicken recipe. And as usual, we’ve got a few things we need to go over before we get started.

First, we roasted our chicken with its skin on and that made it really crispy on the outside and nice and juicy on the inside. But you can of course remove the skin if you want to, but do keep a close eye on the oven, as your cooking time might be different from ours.

Second, we used a lovely Lonumirus paste that’s sold in small containers; the brand is Firoashi. You can use any brand you want or even make a batch of Lonumirus from scratch.

Ingredients:

• 1 whole chicken (1 kg)
• 2 garlic cloves
• ½ cup lonumirus
• 4 heaped tsp. tomato paste
• 1 tbsp. honey
• 1 tbsp. softened butter
• ½ tsp. salt (or to taste)
• 1tbsp. oil or butter (for greasing)

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven at 175 degrees Celcius.
2. Prepare your baking tray. We lined our tray with aluminium foil and then lightly greased it by rubbing butter on it. You can use oil too.
3. Grate the garlic cloves.
4. In a bowl mix together the Lonumirus, grated garlic, tomato paste, honey and butter until everything is well combined. Set it aside.
5. Using some kitchen paper or tissue papers, pat the chicken dry. (After defrosting the chicken, we did give it a good rinse.)
6. Place the chicken on a clean plate, take a knife and make a few incisions on both sides, especially on the breast.
7. Then sprinkle salt on both sides and rub it in.
8. Transfer the chicken to the tray you prepared before. And then rub the Lonumirus mixture on it. Do it well on both sides and place some inside the cavity too. Make sure to push some Lonumirus mixture into the incisions you made before. 
9. Place the tray on the medium rack of the oven and bake the chicken until the skin looks golden brown and when you pierce the chicken, the juice runs clear. It took us 1 hour and 20 minutes to get there.