Roasted Chicken with Harissa, Preserved Lemons & Green Olives

This method is my favorite to use when roasting a chicken. It gets the skin super crispy and the meat juicy and delicious. You can use any sort of rub on the chicken that you like...herbs & olives oil or butter or just plain salt & pepper. If you like something with a kick, try the harissa. It's similar to a chili paste, and it's really yummy. I love adding the honey to mine at the end to give it just a hint of sweetness. If you don't like olives or lemons, you could leave that part off, but I would suggest at least trying it because it's an absolutely delicious combination with the heat of the harissa. Don't let roasting a chicken scare you...you can do it, I promise!!! I served this with mashed potatoes & lima beans as I was feeding it to my children, but you could serve it with quinoa or couscous, and it would be really delicious.

This recipe is inspired by Gwyneth Paltrow's Two-Pan Chicken in her cookbook It's All Good and method inspired by Anne Burrell's found HERE.)

Ingredients:
1 whole chicken
1/4 cup harissa paste (ordered off of Amazon)
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 cup chopped olives
1/4 cup preserved lemons in olive oil (ordered off of Amazon)
salt
pepper
honey (optional)

Method:
Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Combine harissa paste & olive oil  and a large pinch of salt & pepper in a small bowl. Rub harissa mixture under the skin of the chicken and then all over. Place chicken in a roasting pan and roast for 15 minutes. Lower the heat to 375 degrees and continue cooking for 15 more minutes. Flip the chicken over and roast for 15 more minutes. Flip the chicken one last time and roast for 15 minutes. (Total cook time is 1 hour, and your chicken will end up the way that you started cooking it.) Chicken is done when the internal temperature is between 160 and 170 degrees. Check this by placing a kitchen thermometer between the leg and the thigh without touching the bone.

While chicken is roasting, combine the olives, preserved lemons, olive oil, and a pinch of salt & pepper in a small bowl.

Let chicken rest for 10 minutes before carving. Serve chicken with olive mixture and honey (optional if you want a sweet taste to cut the harissa).

Happy Cooking!