Chicken is a popular meat everywhere in the world and now that most of us are fiscally challenged, even more so. The Portuguese have always done magical things to chicken – in Angola and Mozambique they created the piri piri chicken, in Portugal the Frango Com Ervilhas (Chicken with peas) is legendary and in Madeira they make it with Madeira. Once again,  this chicken can be prepared a day in advance and popped into the oven when your guests arrive – in fact it’s better if it rests in the marinade a while. B y the time pre-dinner drinks are over and hors d‘oevres have been served, your meal will be ready.

Ingredients

• 1 x 1.5 kg roasting chicken, completely defrosted, cleaned and quite dry.
• 4 garlic cloves, peeled
• 8 whole black peppercorns
• 250 ml madeira wine
• 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• Sea salt to taste

Method

• Put the chicken in a large Ziploc bag.
• In a food processor (or with a mortar and pestle), grind the garlic cloves and the peppercorns to making a paste.
• Put this in a small bowl and incorporate the Madeira.
• Transfer this to the Ziploc bag and make sure that you remove all the air so that everything covers the chicken.
• Place in the fridge over night or at the very least, for two and a half hours.
• Remove and bring to room temperature before roasting.
• Heat oven to 200 C degrees.
• Remove the chicken from the Ziploc bag, but do not discard the marinade.
• Place in the roasting dish, pour the marinade in the dish and in opening of the chicken and pour the olive oil over the chicken.
• Place chicken in oven and roast, uncovered for and hour or a little more – depending on your oven – until juices run clear.
• If the chicken browns too much, lightly cover with a piece of aluminium foil.
• Allow to rest 15-20 minutes before carving.