Dukkah Roast Chicken

Warm Pomegranate Gravy Dressing

Serves 6

Ingredients

1 x 350g jar of small preserved lemons

1 fresh red chilli

1 bunch of rosemary (20g)

1 pomegranate

Olive oil

1 x 1.5kg free-range whole chicken

1 tbsp runny honey

3 tbsp dukkah (see below)

Red wine vinegar

140g wild rocket

For the dukkah

In a non-stick frying pan on a medium heat, toast 1 tablespoon each of black peppercorns, sea salt, coriander seeds and fennel seeds with 1 teaspoon of cumin seeds and finely grated zest of 1 lemon for 4 minutes, then tip into a large pestle and mortar. Pound until fine while you toast 50g each of blanched almonds and hazelnuts in the hot pan for 2 minutes, adding 50g of sesame seeds for a final minute. Tip it all into the mortar and pound into the mix with 50g of shelled unsalted pistachios. Cool, then decant into an airtight jar and store until needed – it’ll keep happily for weeks!

On the day

I like to time this so the chicken is coming out of the oven to rest just as my guests arrive. Preheat the oven to 180ºC. Get a roasting tray that will fit the chicken fairly snugly. Halve, deseed and finely chop 4 preserved lemons and place in the tray. Roughly chop and add the chilli, strip in the rosemary, then halve the pomegranate and squeeze all the juice through your fingers into the tray. Add 1 tablespoon of olive oil, then the chicken, season lightly and rub all that flavour over the bird, getting into all the nooks and crannies. Pour 150ml of water into the tray around the chicken and roast for 1 hour 20 minutes, or until golden and cooked through, basting halfway with the tray juices. Remove, cover and leave to rest for 30 minutes in the tray.

To serve

Move the chicken to a serving platter, drizzle and brush with the honey, then scatter over the dukkah. For the dressing, skim off and discard a spoonful of fat from the tray, then place the tray over a medium heat on the hob, add 1 tablespoon of red wine vinegar and simmer until thickened, scraping up all the sticky bits and loosening with splashes of water, if needed. Pour through a sieve into a little jug. Serve with the chicken and a bowl of rocket. Great with my smashed aubergine and roasted squash recipes, which you’ll find in the book.

Veggie love

Use 1 cauliflower (800g) instead of chicken for veggie guests – use just 2 preserved lemons in the marinade, then roast and finish it in exactly the same way as the chicken.

Preserve those lemons

Preserved lemons don’t last that long once the jar’s open, so what I do is pour all their liquor into a blender, deseed and add the lemons, then blitz until smooth.