Roast Chicken with Date & Orange Couscous
By Pierre Khodja
4 serves
30 mins
100 mins
Ingredients
- 1 whole The Bare Bird chicken
- 3 tbsp ghee
- Salt & black pepper
- Pinch of saffron threads
- 1 cup uncooked couscous
- 1 clove garlic, crushed
- 6 fresh dates, roughly chopped
- ½ cup roasted almond flakes
- Zest & juice of 1 orange
- Zest & juice of 1 lemon
- ½ cup boiling water
- 4 tbsp olive oil
- 3 tbsp fresh mint, chopped
- ½ cup flat-leaf parsley, chopped
Method
- Pre-heat the oven to 190°C.
- Rub the whole chicken with a mixture of ghee, salt and pepper.
- Place saffron threads in ½ cup boiling water to infuse.
- Place the couscous in a bowl with garlic, dates, almonds, orange and lemon zest & juice.
- Pour the saffron-infused water over all the dry ingredients, mix well and cover for 15 mins.
- Remove the covering and fluff with your hands or a fork. Add the olive oil and chopped herbs and season well.
- Stuff chicken with the couscous mixture and secure the legs with string and toothpicks before placing in a roasting dish. Place in the oven for 1½ hours until cooked and golden.
- Remove from the oven and rest for 10 mins before serving.
- Best served with roasted pumpkin and a crisp salad of radicchio.
Wondering what ghee is?
It is simply highly clarified butter. Both ghee and butter contain roughly the same amount of fat and calories and share very similar nutritional profiles.
If you can’t find or don’t want to use Ghee, there are a number of good substitutes: Avocado Oil, Olive Oil, Coconut Oil.