Chicken Mang INasal

Chicken Inasal is a very famous dish in the Philippines from the popular restaurant "Mang Inasal". They provide unlimited servings of rice for the customer who purchase a dine-in meal. Yes, unlimited because the chicken is so goood that you will end up eating a lot of them. But, you can make them at home and they are actually easy.
​Chicken Inasal is made from marinated chicken brushed with oil and annatto extract. Easy to prepare with most ingredients commonly found in the kitchen except lemongrass. 
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But what if you don't have lemongrass? Well, I made it easy for you. I substituted it with lemon juice, ginger and lemon zest. Lemongrass has lemon and mint taste and smell in it so the ginger and the lemon zest will do the flavor. For this recipe, if you have 2 stalks of lemongrass available, omit the lemon juice, ginger and lemon zest in the list of ingredients. 
Also, Chicken Inasal has this beautiful color because of the yellow-orange-red oil (Annatto Oil) brushed on the chicken while grilling. Many recipes uses the oil from the fried chicken skin. What does it mean? The chicken skin is pan-fried until oil comes out and uses that hot oil to extract the color of annatto seeds. 

But instead of using all those fats from the chicken skin, I used olive oil instead. Better and I think healthier of course compared to chicken oil. Anyway, as you know, a lot of times when we grill chicken, the skins burns easily. Why? It is because of the wrong way of how we grill them. Grilling the meat over direct heat will make the skin dark and fully cooked while the inside of the meat needs more time cooking. Of course this depends on what we use when grilling. If have tips below if you are using a gas grill like I do. 

Chicken Inasal Recipe

Ingredients:

• 3 pieces chicken leg quarters

Marinade:

• 1/2 cup soy sauce
• 1/4 cup vinegar
• 1 cup water
• 1/2- 1 tbsp salt, adjust accordingly
• 1 small onion / 1/3 cup onions, chopped
• 1 tsp crushed black peppercorns
• 2 stalks lemongrass, chopped 
• 2 tbsp brown sugar (optional)

​Lemongrass Substitute:

• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 1 tsp ginger, chopped
• zest from 1 medium lemon

Annatto / Basting Oil:

• 1/4 cup oil from fried chicken skin or 1/4 cup olive oil 
• 1-2 tsp annatto seeds, depending on color

​Video

​Procedure:

• Combine all sauce ingredients in a medium bowl.
• Cut a few diagonal slits on chicken quarters. Pour over the sauce. Marinate for at least 4 hours or overnight.  Make sure to turn the chicken at least once during marination.
• In a small pan, heat olive oil over medium-low heat. 
• Add annatto seeds. Stir for few seconds and cook until color turns orange-red.  (Make sure the oil is not too hot to avoid burning the seeds. This will only take about 15-30 seconds.) Drain the oil using a sieve and discard the seeds. 
• ​Grill the leg quarters until cooked through. Occasionally brush with prepared oil. 
• See my grilling TIPS below.
• Enjoy.

​Grilling Tips If Using gas Grill like this one:

​Tips on grilling Chicken: 

• Grease the grates with cooking spray, turn on the flame to preheat and cover until temperature reaches 350 F.  If your grill doesn't come with a temperature gauge, just make sure the plates are heated for few minutes. 
• Add the marinated chicken on the middle grates and brush them with prepared oil. Turn off the heat in the middle where the chicken are placed at and leave the two sides (far sides /empty grates) turned on to high heat. Cover the grill and grill the chicken for about 20 minutes. 
• Flip the chicken on the other side and brush with prepared oil. Cover the grill and cook for another 20 minutes. 
• Turn the chicken again, brush with oil and cook each side for additional 10-15 minutes or until chicken is cooked through.
• This process of grilling the chicken avoids burning the chicken skin. Slow grilling also makes the chicken juicy with the skin mildly crispy and the inside fully cooked.

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