Magnolia Chicken has been a staple of Filipino households for decades. A few days ago, I received some fresh, whole chickens from Magnolia, and of course, I cooked them the easiest way I know how – with a Turbo Broiler!
MAGNOLIA CHICKEN
The first thing I noticed about the Magnolia Chicken while cleaning it was how it was bigger than the standard size of chickens from other brands. It also smelled nice, hahaha. I mean, it smelled fresher without any off or chemical smell. The chicken was plump but did not have too many fat pockets, and the chicken fat was yellowish – not white. Yellow fat indicates that the chicken was eating more natural foods rich in carotenoids.
The Magnolia Chicken was also cleaner. I didn’t have to do too much cleaning because all the internal organs, veins, blood vessels, etc… were already removed properly. All I had to do was to take the neck out and give the chicken a rinse with water.
Magnolia Chickens are raised in stress-free environments, they are free from hormones and steroids, free from antibiotic residue, and even have Omega-3!
GARLIC, ROSEMARY, BEER AND BUTTER ROASTED MAGNOLIA CHICKEN
Turbo chicken is the easiest thing to make with whole chicken, and I usually just use whatever seasonings, herbs and spices we have in the house. With the Magnolia Chicken being so chemical-free, I felt like I also had to use as natural ingredients as I could when cooking it.
I love rosemary. We bought some rosemary plants earlier this year and I have been using them a lot! They are easy to take care of – they just need a lot of sun, and they need to be watered every day or up to every other day, they are not really that fussy.
So I picked some rosemary for the chicken. Feel free to use as much as you like.
Next, I also peeled some garlic. You can use chopped garlic, but I opted to just use whole, crushed garlic because I was too lazy to chop. I used one whole head of garlic, but you can use less or more, depending on how much you like garlic.
I also used about 2 tablespoons of salt (not iodized), and a lot of freshly ground black pepper, but you can adjust this if you are watching your salt intake.
Rub the salt and pepper all around the chicken, try to get the salt & pepper into the meat under the skin as much as you can. Don’t forget to season inside the cavity, too, and don’t forget the wings!
Stuff some rosemary leaves and garlic under the chicken skin, try to reach as many places as you can. Put the remaining garlic and rosemary inside the cavity. I even made tiny slits in the drumstick and embedded garlic and rosemary so the drumstick will get flavor, too.
Making sure the chicken stays juicy: I wanted to brine the chicken so that it would stay juicy, but I didn’t want to do a full-blown brine because it takes up too much space and wastes so much water. I was looking around the pantry and saw some beer! Perfect! I put the chicken inside a zipped plastic bag, and poured maybe 1/4 – 1/3 of the beer. This should provide enough moisture to keep the chicken from drying out.
Next, I squeezed out all the excess air and closed the plastic bag. It’s not a vacuum seal, but it’s the best I can do at home. I turned the chicken to make sure it was evenly coated in the beer. The beer will also help tenderize the chicken and help the other flavors absorb into the chicken meat. Don’t worry, you won’t taste the beer after cooking. I didn’t add any citrus (lemon or calamansi) because I planned to leave it overnight or longer in the refrigerator, and being marinated in citrus for so long will change the texture of the meat.
I left the chicken to marinate in the refrigerator, and I didn’t have time to cook it until 2 days after! Fortunately, the ref was sufficiently cold and the chicken stayed fresh. To cook, I took the marinated chicken out of the ref and let it come to room temperature (about 30 minutes).
For the final, yummy addition, I rubbed some butter all around the chicken, and stuffed butter under the chicken skin! You don’t need a lot of butter, just about 1 tablespoon should be enough. The butter will keep the chicken meat moist while cooking, as well as help make the skin more crispy!
Then I just cooked it on the Turbo Broiler at 175 Celsius. 30 minutes on one side, then 30 minutes on the other side, for a total of 1 hour. I put some foil at the bottom to make it cook more evenly and also for easier cleanup!
The cooked chicken was so good that I’m planning to make this again in a few days! The skin is so, so flavorful.
The meat is so tender. Here, I just pulled on one of the legs and it came off!
Hope you enjoyed this turbo chicken recipe!
You can also try other Magnolia Chicken recipes like Ms. Universes Pia Wurtzbach, Margie Moran and Gloria Diaz do in the video below! See why Magnolia Chicken is the #PambansangManok
Visit the Magnolia Chicken Station on Facebook for more tips!
