Za’atar Roast Chicken Recipe

This plump and juicy Za’atar Roast Chicken Roast will make you feel like you have been teleported to the Middle East.

Middle Eastern 10 Mins 2 Hours Easy Serves 6 to 8

Ingredients

1 Large free-range chicken
3 tbsp Za’atar spice blend
3 rosemary springs, roughly chopped
Handful chopped parsley
5 garlic cloves, crushed
2 tbsp olive oil
5 clementines, halved
200ml Hot chicken stock
1 tsp cornflour mixed with 2tsp water to form a paste
Salt and milled pepper

Method

Preheat the oven to 200°C / 180°C Fan or gas 5.
Place the chicken into a roasting tin. Drizzle all over with olive oil and season with salt and milled pepper. Squeeze the juice of 2 clementines into a small bowl. Stir in the Za’atar, garlic and rosemary. Rub the spice mixture all over the chicken.
Place 2 clementine halves into the cavity of the chicken and tuck the remaining clementine around the chicken.
Place into the oven and roast for about an hour.
Remove the chicken from the oven, pour in the hot chicken stock into the tray, sprinkle over the parsley and pop back into the oven for another 30 minutes, until the juices run clear when you cut into the thickest part of the leg. Remove to a warm plate and leave to rest for 20 minutes before carving.
Place the tray over low heat, and once simmering, stir in half of the cornflour paste. If you like the gravy a little thicker, add the remaining cornflour. Season with a little salt and milled pepper. You can pour any excess juices from the chicken into the gravy before serving.

Recipe notes

In this Za’atar Roast Chicken Recipe, with clementine, rosemary, parsley and garlic, the plump and juicy chicken will make you feel like you have been teleported to the Middle East.

Za’atar, a Middle Eastern herb-and-spice blend, can still be hard to find in the supermarket, so make your own by combining sumac, sesame seeds, thyme, coriander, oregano and cumin.

You can buy sumac, a garnet-coloured lemony spice, in Middle Eastern markets or online, but the rest of the ingredients are most likely already on your spice rack, and leaving out one or two of them is perfectly fine.

The beautiful and functional serving platter featured in this recipe is the Studio Blue Chalk Round Platter by Denby Pottery. Handcrafted from high quality, locally-sourced clay and expertly glazed to enhance durability, it can be used for serving bruschetta and deli meats, as well as a joint or bird as the centrepiece of a roast dinner.

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