North African Spiced Roast Chicken with Sultanas and Lemons

This weekend has been such a blast! It's always nice to get out of London once in a while, especially when the weather's been so perfect. It was also only the second time my girlfriend had met my parents, and it's been a massive relief for us both that it all went swimmingly (I won't go into details about the first time... Let's just say it didn't go so well)!

 We've been sleeping in and having lazy breakfasts. Relaxing in the sun and playing tennis. Spending time with my parents catching up and making the most of the garden and beautiful weather by eating outside on the terrace. Yesterday we threw a Mediterranean style feast for the family and spent the afternoon cooking up a storm. We also found the best playlist on Spotify to cook and sing along to titled 2000s summer hits...think NSYNC and Shakira and you're there!

 Together we made a wonderful spread. The table spread with fresh tzatziki, roasted Mediterranean vegetable couscous, stuffed tomatoes and spatchcocked North African spiced chicken with lemon, sultanas and almonds. A couple of bottles of wine were cracked open, and we had a perfect summer evening celebrating the family being together- the first time in quite a while.

The food worked so well together and we thought we had completely overdone how much we had prepared. We were very wrong... there was barely a scrap left at the end! A particular favourite was the roast chicken. The recipe had formed itself that morning when I had seen an old jar of ras el hanout spice lurking in the spice cupboard that morning.

Ras el hanout is a wonderful North African spice blend, heavy with cinnamon, cardamon, cumin, nutmeg and allspice (and others). There's no real formula for ras el hanout and each variety will contain differing amounts of each spice and additions. It makes a lovely rub for meat or as a flavouring to couscous or rice. I spatchcocked and marinated the chicken for a few hours in a mixture of ras el hanout, honey, tomato puree and olive oil before roasting at a medium high temperature. The spice blend compliments sweet flavours well and produces a wonderful aroma when cooking. I roasted the chicken on a bed of sliced lemons, onions, and sultanas which absorbed and added to the juices of the chicken when roasting. It formed the sauce which you ladle over the portioned chicken along with some fresh parsley and sliced almonds at the end.

This dish is super easy yet looks and smells amazing! It's sweet, savoury and aromatic and makes a perfect centrepiece for a summer dinner with friends or family. 

North African Spiced Roast Chicken with Sultanas and Lemons

(Serves four people)

Ingredients

- 1 medium chicken
- 2 tbsp.. of ras el hanout spice
- 2 tbsp. of extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tbsp. of honey
- 1 tbsp. tomato puree
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 1 lemon
- 1 white onion
- 1 cup (2 handfuls) sultanas
- 1 small bunch of fresh parsley
- 1/2 cup (1 handful) flaked almonds

Method

- Spatchcock the chicken and set aside.
- Mix the spice, honey, oil and tomato puree in a large bowl and add salt and pepper to taste.
- Add the whole chicken to the bowl and thoroughly rub the chicken on both sides with the marinade. Cover with clingfilm and refrigerate for 2-3 hours.
- Preheat an oven to 180C fan (190C).
- Finely slice a lemon into rounds and roughly slice the white onion. Arrange these in a roasting tin. Sprinkle over this the sultanas before lying the chicken skin side up on top of the bed of onion, lemon, and sultanas.
- Roast for 40-50 minutes checking that the skin is crispy and charred in places yet the juices from the thickest part of the chicken run clear.
- Remove from the oven and allow the chicken to rest for 10-15 minutes covered in foil on a carving board.
- Remove any of the lemon rinds from the sauce at the bottom of the roasting pan. Transfer all the juices, onions and sultanas into a bowl and set aside.
- Chop the chicken into individual portions and arrange in a serving dish. Ladle the sauce over the top of the portions and garnish with roughly chopped parsley and flaked almonds.