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Roast Chicken with Pixies, Fennel and Ouzo

6 votes, average: 4.33 out of 56 votes, average: 4.33 out of 56 votes, average: 4.33 out of 56 votes, average: 4.33 out of 56 votes, average: 4.33 out of 5

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SKILL LEVEL :
Easy

Yotam Ottolenghi

Yotam Ottolenghi has two gorgeous cookbooks that will inspire you to cook more vegetables: Plenty and Jerusalem. Plenty is vegetarian and Jerusalem is a collection multi-ethnic recipes inspired by the city. Both cookbooks are saturated with mouth-watering pictures that will encourage you to eat a rainbow of colors. The photography is so beautiful you will not know which recipe to start with. While ingredient lists can be long and not always available at your corner market, the recipes in general, do not require a lot of special technique.

A medley of intriguing flavors

This roasted chicken and fennel with pixies and ouzo will fill your kitchen with fabulous aromas. I substituted ouzo for the arak (both are anise flavored liquors) and California pixies for clementines. I also add a whole head of garlic cloves, which mellows very nicely with the chicken, fennel and citrus. Finally, I add about 3/4 cup of pitted prunes for a little sweetness. Don't let the ouzo scare you. I admit I was a little hesitant as my last experience with ouzo was in college. As I dimly recall, the experience wasn't pretty. Fear not, the ouzo accentuates the fennel and is a mellow counterpoint to the tart clementines, mustard and brown sugar. Your investment in the bottle of ouzo will be a good one, as you will make this dish again and again.

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Make ahead, for a crowd and repurpose leftovers for salad the next day

This is a great recipe to make ahead for company as you can prepare it in advance and marinate the dish overnight, although extended marinating is not necessary. The recipe expands easily to adjust to the number you are serving. I used the leftovers to make a tasty salad the next day by tossing pieces of the chicken, fruit and fennel with some lettuce and a mustard, oil and vinegar dressing.  Yum!

Tips

  1. To make the sauce, skim off most of the fat and deglaze the cooking liquid before you reduce it.  The chicken skin throws off a lot of grease you won't want in your sauce.  Deglazing captures all the good bits that are stuck to the bottom of the pan.
  2. See my tip for separating and peeling a whole head of garlic.
  3. Use bone-in, skin on chicken thighs for best flavor.
  4. Use clementines, California pixies or other seedless tangerine-like fruit that do not have a lot of airspace between the skin and the fruit.
  5. Add 1/2 cup to 1 cup of pitted prunes to the marinade. These nuggets of goodness roast up to be little flavor bombs.

What is your favorite Ottolenghi recipe?

Send us your favorite Ottolenghi recipe in the Comment Section at the bottom of the recipe. Print

Roast chicken with pixies, fennel and ouzo

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This roasted chicken with clementines and ouzo will fill your kitchen with fabulous aromas. Simple to prepare and delicious, this dish can be prepared ahead of time and is great for a large crowd.

  • Author: Something New For Dinner
  • Prep Time: 30 minutes
  • Cook Time: 35 minutes
  • Total Time: 1 hours 5 minutes
  • Yield: 6 servings 1x

Ingredients

Scale
  • 7 T ouzo (just over 1/3 cup
  • 1/4 cup olive oil
  • 3 T fresh orange juice
  • 3 T fresh lemon juice
  • 2 T whole grain mustard
  • 3 T brown sugar
  • 1 T fresh thyme leaves, stems removed and roughly chopped
  • 2.5 t whole, fennel seeds. lightly crushed
  • 2.5 t kosher salt
  • 1.5 t freshly ground pepper
  • 2 fennel bulbs, trimmed and cut into 8 wedges
  • 3 pounds skin-on, bone-in chicken thighs
  • 3/4 pound pixies or clementines, cut into 1/4” wedges with skin on
  • 1/2 to 1 cup pitted prunes
  • 1 head of garlic, cloves separated and peeled
  • 1/4 cup dry white wine or chicken stock
  • Handful of fresh parsley, roughly chopped

Instructions

  1. Combine first 10 ingredients in a bowl large enough to also accommodate the chicken, fennel and citrus.
  2. Add the fennel, chicken, citrus and garlic to the marinade. Toss thoroughly with your hands so all ingredients are coated in marinade. Cover and refrigerate a few hours or overnight. If you are short on time, it is OK to cook right away.
  3. Heat oven to 475 degrees. Place the chicken skin-side up on a roasting pan. Arrange the vegetables and fruit between the chicken so everything is in a single layer. Pour remaining marinade over chicken, vegetables and citrus. Roast for about 35 minutes until chicken is cooked through.
  4. Remove the chicken, vegetables and citrus from the roasting pan and arrange on a serving platter. Cover and keep warm.
  5. Tilt the roasting pan so that all the fat collects in one corner. Skim off excess fat with a small ladle. Put the roasting pan on the stove top and turn on to medium heat. When pan is hot, deglaze with 1/4 cup white wine or chicken stock. Stir and scrape to get all the tasty bits off the bottom of the roasting pan. Pour the pan juices into small pan and cook on medium high to reduce. When sauce measures about 1/3 cup remove from heat and pour over chicken, veggies and citrus. Garnish with chopped parsley and serve.
THIS SERVES WELL WITH

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7 COMMENTS

Comments

  1. Aonam says:

    This roast chickens indeed is my favorite Ottolenghi recipe. I had it a couple months ago at a dinner party and bought the recipe book, Jerusalem, so i could duplicate the experience at home and ended up serving it at my next party. Love the idea to use pixies and to slice them the way you did. Will try that next time. And great idea to prepare a day in advance! Thanks for that helpful entertaining-easy tip!

  2. This chicken was delicious! I made it last night for a large Valentine’s day dinner. Not only was it easy to prepare (I marinated it one night it advance), but it has beautiful presentation. It knocked the socks off my guests! Definitely something I would make again.

  3. Hi Kim! I found your blog on Pinterest when I was searching for people cooking from Jerusalem! My friend Sarene Wallace and I started a virtual cooking community called Tasting Jerusalem so we could gather food lovers who want to explore Middle Eastern cuisine through the lens of “Jersualem: A Cookbook”. We hope you will come check out our community – you can find us on FB on a page called Tasting Jerusalem or on Twitter or instagram with the hashtag “TastingJrslm”. I also started a group Pinterest board I’d love for you to join and will soon have a Google Community set up.

    I LOVE this dish – it just wowed me. Last week I made the Meatballs with fava and lemon – the sauce is just crazy good. We’re learning about couscous at Tasting Jerusalem this month and running a recipe contest for new recipes, in addition to the two we have picked out from the book. Come by and say hi when you get a chance!

    1. Kim says:

      Hi Beth,

      I really love everything Ottolenghi too. He has yet to let me down. Have you tried his spinach salad with dates, almonds and sumac dusted pita croutons? It is ultra simple to make, and as always, very tasty. I just posted it this week. This was my first introduction to sumac, and I am now a huge fan. I recently ate in a couple of his restaurants in London, and am fired up to cook more from both Jerusalem and Plenty. I will definitely check you out on Facebook and Pinterest. Something New For Dinner is also on Facebook and Instagram. I look forward to perusing your sites!

  4. Susan says:

    Easy to make with incredible flavor – guests always
    enjoy this dish!

  5. Larry's wife says:

    This dish is amazing! The flavors are so awesome! Great do ahead dish, beautiful presentation and a definite crowd pleaser! My new “go to” dish! Thanks for making me look good SNFD!

    1. Kim Pawell says:

      And thank you Larry’s wife for the great feedback. I’m glad you enjoyed the recipe. My version is slightly different than Ottolenghi’s original in that I add prunes and whole garlic. Still Ottolenghi, gets all of the credit for this delicious dish.

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