Gai Yang Isaan, oven

Put the chicken breast down. Cut along both sides of the backbone with shears. Remove the backbone.

Turn the chicken over. Press on the breastbone until it cracks and the bird lies flat. Dry it with paper.

Cut 3 to 4 shallow slashes through the skin into each thigh and the thickest part of each breast.

Scrape the coriander roots clean. Pound them in the dry mortar to a fibrous pulp.

Add the garlic. Pound until it joins the pulp.

Add the lemongrass. Pound until no long fibres remain.

Add the bird's eye chillies last. Pound them coarse. Leave pieces in the paste.

Stir in the fish sauce, the oyster sauce, the palm sugar and 25 ml of the coconut cream. Do not pound.

Stir in the white pepper and the black pepper last.

Rub the paste under the skin, into the slashes, into the cavity and over all surfaces.

Cover the chicken. Refrigerate it overnight.

Set the oven to 220 degrees C with the fan on. Put a wire rack over a sheet pan on the middle shelf.

Put a tray of boiling water on the lowest shelf.

Put the chicken on the rack, skin up. Point the legs to the back of the oven, at the fan.

The back wall near the fan runs hotter. The thighs need the extra heat. The breast stays nearer the cooler door.

Roast for 15 minutes. Then turn the pan through 180 degrees.

Roast on. Start to probe the thigh at 25 minutes.

When the skin takes colour, remove the water tray.

The grill stage needs dry heat. Wet air stops the skin from browning.

Mix the remaining 50 ml of coconut cream with any paste that is left. Baste the skin.

Move the chicken to the top shelf, 10 to 15 cm below the grill element.

Set the top grill to maximum. Keep the oven door open a little.

An open door stops the thermostat from turning the element off.

Grill until the skin is deep brown with patches of char. Watch it all the time.

The sugar in the paste goes from brown to black in under a minute.

Take the chicken out when the thigh reads 76 degrees C. 78 degrees C is also correct.

Rest the chicken on a board for 10 to 15 minutes. Do not cover it.

Carve. Scatter the coriander leaf. Serve with lime wedges, sticky rice and nam jim jaew.