I don’t often roast a whole chicken.
When ever I do I tell myself that I really should do it more often.
We love the chicken on the day I roast it and we love the leftovers the next day. Since I am squarely in the middle of an ‘I lost the will to cook’ period I need to plan to have leftovers more often.
Soon the barbecue grills will come out of storage and I can hand the task to mon mari.
In the meantime – more roasts!
This is based on a recipe from ‘the food of Morocco’. We love chicken livers so happily added them, as the recipe suggested.
Feel free to leave them out.
This spends 90 minutes in the oven so it’s not terribly labor-intensive…. But not everything I cook is ‘simple’.
Click here to Pin Roast Chicken with Preserved Lemon
PrintRoast Chicken with Preserved Lemon
This is a Moroccan dish with spices typical of that country.
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Sauce: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 90 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour 55 minutes
- Yield: 4 servings 1x
- Category: Chicken
- Method: Roasting
Ingredients
- 1 whole chicken
- 1/4 preserved lemon, pulp discarded, rind cut into strips
- 1 tbs olive oil
- 1 onion, chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1/2 cup whole green olives, with pits
- 2 1/2 cups chicken broth
- 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp ground ginger
- pinch saffron threads
- 2 bay leaves
- 2 chicken livers
Instructions
- Heat oil in a large skillet.
- Add onion, garlic and sauté until tender, about 5 minutes.
- Add the chicken broth, herbs, spices, olives and lemon.
- Stir well to combine.
- Place chicken in a deep baking dish.
- Pour contents of skillet over chicken.
- Roast, 350F (180C) for 90 minutes, or until done, basting every 15 minutes.
- When chicken is done, remove from dish and cover to keep warm.
- Pour the sauce from the baking dish into a large skillet and bring to a boil.
- Add the chicken livers and cook through.
- Remove and very finely chop.
- Reduce the sauce slightly.
- Cut the chicken into pieces, pour the reduced sauce, with lemon, olives, onions, liver, over and serve
Notes
Substitute 1 tbs lemon juice for the preserved lemon.
You can substitute turmeric (best) or paprika for the saffron, or leave it out.
You can also leave out the chicken livers…
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1/4 recipe
- Calories: 354
- Sugar: 2.4 g
- Sodium: 779.5 mg
- Fat: 11.5 g
- Saturated Fat: 2.5 g
- Trans Fat: 0 g
- Carbohydrates: 6.4 g
- Fiber: 1.4 g
- Protein: 53.9 g
- Cholesterol: 234 mg
Keywords: Moroccan Chicken, Roast Chicken
We normally buy chicken livers in an 8oz (250gr) container which is a lot of chicken livers. They’re great wrapped in bacon, drizzled with soy sauce and baked as an appetizer (Rumaki) or fried with a bit of teriyaki sauce and added to a spinach salad.
You can preserve your own lemons easily if, like me, you often buy more than you need.
On another note….. We are finally seeing serious signs of spring. We’ve had a lovely warm, sunny week.
Along with the flowers comes the work.
The potager has been tilled and is waiting my attention, as is the herb garden and all the pots.
It will be nice working out in the sunshine again (I keep telling myself).
Nothing like the start of spring…it makes the world look so pretty
Even when we get snow on the tulips lol (cold today)
I can’t remember the last time I roasted a whole chicken. I’m rather ashamed to say that I can buy a roasted chicken at the grocery for around $7 and they are absolutely delicious so I just don’t do my own anymore. I don’t get the innards, but I do get two meals out of them, a dinner and chicken salad for the next day so it’s cost effective and I have no dirty pans to clean.
We’re under a severe weather warning for overnight and tomorrow morning. My crocus have all frozen solid and if you touch them, they shatter. My hyacinth aren’t even trying at this point and the tulips…I feel sorry for them. If the weather is too bad tomorrow, we’ll be skipping PT. Maybe we can go another morning or make up for it with an extra morning next week, but we’re almost into April and I’m getting a little tired of the 10 degree overnights and the snow and freezing days now. :/
We have the chickens – and they are cheap…. but I never buy them. No reason, but, other than sandwiches, I’m not sure what I would do with them – and nibble, of course. Maybe that’s why I don’t get them lol
Our winter has returned yesterday. Actually, I shouldn’t say it returned since it’s colder than it ever was and a nasty, bitter wind. I hope my tulips survive. The wisteria buds are bing blown off tho….