Butterflied Chicken with Puglia Chilli Sauce

Cook Time 1 hour

Servings 4

Ingredients

½ cup of extra virgin olive oil

1 x 1.6-1.8kg whole chicken, at room temperature

1 brown onion, quartered

1 bulb of garlic, cut in half horizontally

8 long red chillies

1 tomato, quartered

150ml red wine vinegar

1 tbsp caster sugar

6 slices Hungarian salami

1 small handful of basil leaves
1 small handful of parsley leaves

Salt

Method

Preheat the oven to 210°C.

To butterfly chicken, place the chicken on a chopping board breast side down. Using sharp kitchen scissors or a knife cut down either side of the backbone to remove and discard. Turn chicken over and using the palm of your hand press the chicken down to flatten.

Arrange the garlic and onion on the baking tray and place the chicken breast-side up on top. Drizzle a tablespoon of extra virgin oil over the chicken and season with salt. Roast in the oven for 35-40 minutes. Add the salami to the baking tray 10 minutes before the chicken is cooked.

For the sauce, heat the remaining extra virgin olive oil in a pot over a medium-high heat and add the whole chillies. Cook for 8-10 minutes, turning regularly until they soften and blister. Now add the tomato, vinegar and sugar and cook for a further 4 minutes. Remove from the heat. Once it has cooled, remove the skin from the chillies and the tomato pieces and roughly chop. Place the chopped chillies and tomatoes back in to the oil.

Once the chicken is cooked, place it on a board and cover loosely with foil. Chop the cooked crispy salami.

Add half the roasted onion and half the roasted garlic flesh that has been squeezed out of its skins and the chopped salami to the chilli sauce and mix together.

Chop the chicken into quarters and spoon the chilli sauce over the top. Garnish with parsley and basil.