Roast Chicken with Mango Chutney Glaze

Who says a Sunday roast has to be traditional? This roast chicken with mango chutney glaze is everything you love about Indian food in a Sunday roast. It’s a low-prep dish of whole roast chicken rubbed with classic spices: ginger, coriander, turmeric and paprika and then glazed with irresistible sticky, sweet and spicy mango chutney. It yields a striking, crispy-skinned, melt-in-the-mouth meal. Just add your favourite sundries. 

Not ready to break with tradition? Rosemary and thyme roast chicken is an equally easy recipe that can be served with standard roasties and maple glazed carrots.

Glazed whole roast chicken

Have I ever mentioned my harmlessly mild glazing obsession? It started with carrots, went on to ham, I glazed some breakfast plums, and a few poppyseed buns. Then it shifted up a gear to eggplant, a meatloaf, salmon and now whole entire chickens. Which makes me a bit of an expert. 

The fundamentals of a glaze are simple, so you could make your own by combining, boiling and cooling the following:

Sweet- for example sugar, honey, syrup like maple or agave, or just jam.

Aromatics- garlic, miso, ginger, mango etc.

Liquid- i.e. plain water, soy sauce or vinegar depending on the food you’re glazing.

Spice- if savoury, that is. This could be chipotle, harissa, chilli, whatever your preferred fire.

Or just grab a jar of chutney where they are all conveniently rolled into one and ready to use! 

As this is an Indian-inspired recipe, I’ve used mango chutney. It has a perfect balance of sweetness and spice, the unexpected zing of mango, and the consistency will adhere to the chicken and not slide off. That part is very important.

Don’t be tempted to glaze your mango chutney chicken from the get-go- that will lead to a singed skin. Glaze it twice. Once after a good 45 minutes cooking, then again when it comes out of the oven. 

The glaze will not only offer a dazzling shine to the centrepiece roast and a tantalising flavour, it will also seal in some moisture making sure each mouthful is pure succulence.

Anything else I can glaze??

Serving suggestions

While you can totally stick to the traditional roast sides, I’m making these additional swaps for an extravagant Indian banquet that will flatter this succulent chicken:

• Roast potatoes for cauliflower and potato aloo gobi and/or coconut rice
• Carrots for shredded carrot salad 
• Yorkshire puddings for soft and milky naan bread
• Bread sauce for cool and creamy raita
• Onion gravy for oozy, lentil and butter-rich dal makhani

What changes would you make?

Storage and leftovers

There are always roast chicken leftovers, and that’s no bad thing! And this particular fragrant, glazed chicken has great potential. 

I suggest removing all the meat from the bones before refrigeration. This will minimise the risk of bacteria from the bones reaching the flesh. Once you’ve done this, both bones and meat can be kept for between 2-3 days in the fridge.

Firstly, the bones. Do not even think about ditching them! This curry-infused carcass is going to make great stock. And from the stock there’s Indian mulligatawny soup, mango chicken curry, sweet potato and lentil curry (but don’t use chicken stock if you have vegetarian guests!) to name a fraction.

And as for the meat itself, use it as a sandwich or wrap filling, or top a salad, or shred it into a soup.

More chicken recipes to try

• Chicken Piccata
• One Pan Greek Chicken and Orzo
• Thai Glazed Instant Pot Whole Chicken
• Spatchcock Chicken in Spicy Yogurt Sauce