This is an excellent way of cooking chicken, first it is marinated then boiled  and then roast, the result is a very moist roast chicken. In the spring we like to eat this chicken with big piles of asparagus, in the summer with a green salad, in the autumn with the last of the summer courgettes and aubergines but in the winter we have it with roast vegetables like carrots, pumpkin and brussel sprouts. The marinade makes a lovely lemony sauce to go with the meal.

Ingredients

1 whole chicken, I like to use Bostock’s organic free range chickens,  this is a size 20 which is the largest they do.

1 medium or 2 small onions.

1 preserved lemon.

1 bunch of fresh coriander.

1/2 cup of olive oil, I use a local Nelson Olive oil, Kakariki.

1 tablespoon of paprika.

1/2 tablespoon ground cumin powder.

1/2 tablespoon ground ginger.

1 tablespoon of coriander seeds.

4 cloves of garlic.

Rinse the preserved lemons and remove the inside pulp, it’s just the skin we want. Roughly chop the onion, peel the garlic and wash and roughly chop the coriander, reserve some for adding to the sauce at the very end. Then put the onion, coriander, garlic, lemons, spices and olive oil into a food processor and blitz until puréed.

Then empty the puréed marinade onto the chicken.

Spread the purée all over the chicken and put into a large saucepan to marinade for about an hour. At this stage it can be left over night or all day but be sure to put it in the refridgerator if you are going to leave it for longer than an hour.After it has marinated pour 1 cup of water into the saucepan and bring to a gentle simmer with a lid on. Simmer gently for 45 minutes.

Then lift the chicken out and place in a roasting pan, scrap off most of the marinade back into the saucepan. Then roast the chicken in the oven uncovered at 200c for 30 minutes.

While the chicken is simmering prepare the vegetables, here carrots, brussel sprouts and butternut squash. I am going to roast them all, I like to do them seperatly because the carrots need longer than the sprouts and the squash depends on the size you cut it. I like to add sumac to the brussel sprouts as the flavour compliments the middle eastern flavours of the chicken, the carrots and squash I like to leave to shine on their own. All the vegetables are roasted in coconut oil in a hot oven at about 200c, so you can do them at the same time as roasting the chicken. Just pull them out when they are ready.

While everything is roasting finish off the sauce, chop the reserved coriander and add to the sauce which should be simmered for a while to reduce into a lovely thick rich sauce.This whole roast chicken with its sauce is only 15 grams of carbs, so just add in your vegetables for your total carbs.