Thai Baked Chicken with Sweet Potatoes and Som Tam

Steps

1. Clean the chicken: Remove excess fat and skin. Cut open the chicken by removing the backbone, then thoroughly wash it inside.
2. Prepare the marinade paste: Pound garlic first with a little course salt. Then add black peppercorns and half of the palm sugar/jaggery to pound further. Add red chilies, cover with a towel (to prevent flying), and add the remaining palm sugar and more course salt until it has a rustic coarseness.
3. Finish the marinade: Stir in 1 tablespoon of dark sweet soya sauce and 1 tablespoon of fish sauce. Taste and adjust for balance.
4. Prepare the chicken for baking: Place half of the lemongrass stalks on a rectangular baking tray, then spread kaffir lime leaves over them. Place the cleaned chicken flat over this base.
5. Season and stuff the chicken: Lightly salt the outside of the chicken with course salt. Squeeze lemon juice onto the chicken. Stuff some of the marinade inside the cavity and massage it all over the flesh to ensure deep flavor penetration.
6. Add aromatics: Tuck kaffir lime leaves into the cavity along with the lemongrass pieces.
7. Prepare sweet potatoes: Parboil the sweet potatoes until they are still slightly raw in the center.
8. Marinate the chicken: Allow the chicken to marinate for at least 30-40 minutes (ideally overnight).
9. Bake the chicken and potatoes: Preheat oven to 180°C. Place the tray with the marinated chicken and parboiled sweet potatoes into the preheated oven.
10. Cover and bake: Cover the baking tray with foil and bake for 20 minutes. Remove the foil and continue baking until the chicken is cooked through (total time specified as 1 hour 40 minutes).
11. Prepare Som Tam ingredients: Place grated cucumber, carrot, and white radish into a bowl of chilled water to maintain crunch.
12. Make the Som Tam dressing: In a separate bowl, lightly bash up garlic. Add red chilies and tamarind chutney (or Indian Chutney). Mix in 1 teaspoon of fish sauce and gently squeeze cherry tomatoes without crushing them.
13. Assemble the Som Tam: Drain the chilled water from the grated vegetables and add them to the dressing mixture. Use a wooden pestle to lightly crush/mix the ingredients together until combined.
14. Serve: Place the baked chicken and sweet potatoes on a platter, drizzle with any remaining sauce, and serve alongside the prepared Som Tam.