Oven Grilled Chicken with Mayonnaise and Herbs

One of my favourite dish is the Baked Cod with Garlic Mayo.  Recently, I decided to try out the same idea on chicken with my (dying) homegrown herbs. Better eat them before they all dry out (due to the hot weather) and die. :P

I did the same dish 3 times before deciding which is the family's favourite. Once with dried herbs grilled on rack and the next was without rack. The 3rd tried out was with fresh herbs grilled on rack.

My husband preferred the fresh herbs as it's more subtle and not too overpowering. But he preferred grilling the chicken straight on the pan so the chicken can absorb the juices. I preferred the stronger aroma from the dried herbs but I, too, preferred grilling it on the pan. The chicken turned out very juicy and flavourful. Even the kids loved it.

Try it out and let me know which do you prefer. :)

Ingredients:

• 4 Chicken Leg, deboned
• 5 tablespoon Japanese Mayonnaise
• 2 sprig Fresh Rosemary
• a small bunch Oregano (abt 4 stems)
• a small bunch Thyme (abt 10 stems)
• 1 teaspoon Garlic Powder or 2 clove Garlic, grated
• Ground Black Pepper
• Salt

How to do it:

1. Remove leaves of all the herbs from its stems.
2. Tear them into bits or you can chop them up if you like.
3. Mix them with the mayonnaise.
4. Spread the mixture all over clean and dabbed dry chicken.
5. Spread a little mixture under the skin too if possible.
6. Let it marinate for at leave 2 hours or overnight.
7. Season the chicken with salt and black pepper all over.
8. I added more black pepper on the skin.
9. Grill chicken in preheat oven at 180c for 30 mins.
10. Increase the temperature to 200c and continue to grill chicken another 10 mins or till the skin starts to brown.
11. Remove and serve.

Note:

• You may replace fresh herbs with 1 teaspoon of dried herbs each.  I prefer using garlic powder as fresh garlic will taste bitter if it's burned.
• If you prefer the chicken to be dried and more crispy, grill it on a rack.
• You can use the sauce from the chicken to roast more flavour vegetables.
• Have 'tent' made from foil to cover the chicken, if you find the chicken browning too fast. Remove it at step 10 to continue grilling to brown the skin.