my complicated life

this is a photo of the chicken that i baked. it doesn't look so yummy because the picture was taken using my xda and after the chicken has been taken apart already. hehehe. pano ba naman, as soon as the chicken was placed on plate, hands were already dunking its way into it to disassemble every joints it have. with the "almost" successful chocolate cake that i made a couple of days back, i got kinda inspired to bake some more. =) so, this is my first baked chicken! tinalo nya ang lasa ng andok's, promise!!! haha.

what's the secret?

1. the chicken has to be rubbed with rock salt first to take out the bad smell. however, since there's no rock salt in UAE i just rubbed iodized salt on it and crossed my fingers that it'll make wonders. and it did!!! =)

2. i rinsed it afterwards and let the liquid drip so the chicken will dry a bit.

3. then i poured bout 1/4 cup soy sauce, pepper to taste, squeezed in some lemon, put some lots of well-pounded garlic and a teaspoon of hot sauce. it would be best to put pandan leaves as well inside the chicken. i couldn't find one in the market yet i still managed to do without it though.

4. i let the chicken soaked in this mixture for a day, tossing it each side within the soaking period.

5. after the marinating period, i wrapped the chicken in aluminum foil and cooked it in the oven using 180 degrees Celsius heat. wrapping it in aluminum foil makes the heat be concentrated all throughout the chicken and ensure that even its inside will be cooked as well. plus the meat will be really, really tender!

6. when the chicken became tender, the process is done when one wants to have a tender and juicy chicken. however, i removed it from the foil and baked it again to make chicken's outside crisp!

viola, we had a delicious chicken for supper! the three of us (me, my hubby and my big brother) had a sumptuous meal today. i owe this recipe from my friend istanli, who claims to make the tastiest turkey. come Christmastime, there will be two of us who will stake that claim! haha.

after we were able to clean up the table, me and my hubby went to church for the 3rd day of the Tagalog Mission. the topic for tonight was about FAMILY. about how filipino families were so close-knitted and how each pinoy values his/her own blood. i took my hubby to church hoping he will like this Filipino Abu Dhabi tradition, amongst many of course!