Roast Chicken with Saffron, Hazelnuts and Honey and Playing Catch Up!

Trust me, I have bought very few cookbooks in the last 10 years. Luckily, I have many cookbooks and the library has been a great resource, too. In the last ten years those two have kept me fed, so to speak! The truth is I love cookbooks. I devour them like novels.I sleep with them by my bed. In my opinion, one can never have too many cookbooks. If you are ever wondering what to buy me, well, flowers and cookbooks will suffice!

And so it is I found myself facing “Ottolenghi” at dinnertime. On a cold winter night. In a cold house. It was snowing outside. I was hungry for more than a PB and J! Have I set the scene properly? So I opened the book to the middle. Truly, the page I opened to is page 123 and there are only like 283 pages in the book, so that is about the middle, isn’t it? This recipe, roast chicken with saffron, hazelnuts and honey, was on that page. And on the opposing page is another chicken recipe with za’atar that I am dying to make, too!

Well, this roast chicken with saffron, hazelnuts and honey, rocks! It will knock your socks off. It will send people running from all avenues of your home to see what you are making. It is special. It is simple. It is worth waiting 10 years for, when I could have made it way back in 2008, when this cookbook was published! My intuition tells me you will love it. But my intuition also tells me that you may wonder about this odd sort of ingredients that aren’t very American, so to speak. To this I say, “It is the new year. Time to try new things. Escape your box. Live a little. Catch up. And trust me!” I have great intuition!

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Roast Chicken with Saffron, Hazelnuts and Honey and Playing Catch Up!

• Author: Abbe Odenwalder
• Prep Time: 20 Minutes
• Cook Time: 45 Minutes
• Total Time: 65 Minutes
• Yield: 4-5 Servings 1x
• Category: Main Course
• Method: Baking
• Cuisine: Israeli

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Description

This fragrant chicken has delightful flavors of saffron, hazelnuts and rosewater. Quickly made, you will love my favorite chicken recipe!

 

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Scale 1x2x3x

Ingredients

1 chicken, divided into pieces or quarters

2 onions, coarsely chopped

4 T olive oil

1 t ground ginger or a few gratings of fresh

1 t ground cinnamon

a generous pinch of saffron threads

Juice of 1 lemon

4 T cold water

2 t coarse salt

1 t fresh ground black pepper

3/4 c unskinned hazelnuts

3 1/2 T honey

2 T rose water

2 chopped green onions

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Instructions

In a large bowl, mix the chicken pieces with the onions, olive oil, ginger, cinnamon, saffron, lemon juice, water, salt and pepper. Leave to marinate up to overnight, but at least for a few hours. (I think I marinated this about 3 hours.)

Preheat the oven to 375. Spread the hazelnuts on a baking sheet and toast for about 10 minutes, until lightly browned. Chop coarsely and set side.

Transfer the chicken and marinade to a parchment line baking sheet, large enough to not crowd everything. Place chicken skin side up and place the pan in the oven for about 35 minutes.

While the chicken is roasting, mix the honey, rose water and nuts together to make a rough paste. Remove the chicken from the oven and spoon a generous amount onto each piece. Return to oven for about 10 minutes, until the chicken is cooked through and the nuts are golden. You can place this under the broiler if you want it more golden, but watch that the nuts do not burn.

Serve the chicken sprinkled with green onion.

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Notes

From: Yotam Ottolenghi – “Ottolenghi, The Cookbook

Keywords: chicken, saffron, rosewater, roast chicken

Other great chicken dishes:

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