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Cuban Mojo Chicken

November 13, 2019

Cuban Chicken with Mojo Marinade
Prep Time
15 mins
Cook Time
1 hr
resting time
20 mins
Total Time
1 hr 15 mins
Cuban Chicken roasted in the oven after a Mojo Marinade is applied.  Each juicy bite is herb filled with a citrus mojo sauce.  Easy comfort food for casual weeknights, but special enough you can serve it for guests to rave reviews! 
Course: Condiment, Main Course
Cuisine: American, Cuban
Keyword: baked mojo chicken, cuban chicken, mojo chicken marinade,, mojo chicken recipe
Servings: 8
Calories: 550 kcal

Ingredients
  • 3/4 cup Olive Oil
  • 1 tablespoon orange zest
  • 3/4 cup fresh orange juice
  • 1/4 cup lime juice
  • 1 cup cilantro stems removed finely chopped
  • 1/4 cup mint leaves stems removed finely chopped
  • 8 cloves garlic minced
  • 2 teaspoons dried oregano
  • 2 teaspoons ground cumin
  • 1 tablespoon brown sugar packed tightly
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon pepper
  • 4 tablespoons butter room temperature
  • 5-7 pound Whole Chicken Roaster

Instructions
  1. Preheat Oven to 425°
  2. Remove Chicken from the package and remove inner parts and set aside for another use or throw away.
  3. Rinse Chicken then pat dry. 
  4. Into a bowl of a food processor, add olive oil, orange zest, orange juice, lime juice, cilantro, mint, garlic, oregano, cumin and brown sugar.  Pulse until well blended.  
  5. Place mojo sauce into a sauce pan and set aside.
  6. Into a small bowl or in the bowl of an electric mixer place the butter and  1/3 cup of prepared mojo sauce.  Mix until well combined. Set aside.
  7. At the neck opening of the chicken, place your fingers under the skin and gently lift the skin from the meat.  You will be doing this to create a small pocket between the meat and skin on all parts of the chicken (breast, leg, wing, thigh)
  8. Once the pocket is created you will use your fingers to evenly distribute the mojo butter mixture in all parts of the chicken.
  9. Re-dry chicken with paper towel then salt and pepper generously all sides of whole chicken.
  10. Place chicken breast side down on a roasting rack.  You can create your own if you don't have one with a wire rack over a cookie sheet.
  11. Adjust rack to lowest level and roast chicken for 20 minutes.
  12. Remove chicken from the oven, brush the bottom with mojo marinade and flip chicken so that the breast is now face up.  Brush the top with additional marinade. Put back into the oven and roast for 20 more minutes.
  13. Remove from oven and baste again the chicken.  Place chicken back into the oven and continue to roast until chicken is golden brown and the thickest part of the breast measures 160° on an instant read thermometer and the thick in the thickest area is 175°.  Pay close attention to not hit bone when measuring the temp (It should be between 15-20 minutes to get to this temp but it depends on what size roaster you have.)
  14. Remove chicken from oven and place on a cutting board, tent with foil and let rest for 20 minutes before carving.
  15. While chicken in resting, heat the mojo sauce to high and cook for 10 minutes to cook any raw chicken juices that transferred when basting.  Be sure and not use the brush again in the cooked marinade so as not to have any raw chicken juices in your sauce. 
  16. Serve sauce on the side or spoon over top when serving.  
Recipe Notes
This sauce works equally wonderful stirred into pasta or rice as a side dish.  It also works to toss freshly cooked vegetables in.