Roast Chicken with Saffron, Hazelnuts and Honey

Ingredients:

1 large organic or free-range chicken, divided into quarters: breast and wing, leg and thigh

2 onions, roughly chopped

4 tbs olive oil

1 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp ground cinnamon

a generous pinch of saffron strands

juice of 1 lemon

4 tbs cold water

2 tsp coarse sea salt

1 tsp black pepper

100g unskinned hazlenuts

70g honey

2 tbs rosewater (can be substituted with almond extract)

Method:

1 In a large bowl, mix the chicken pieces with the onions, olive oil, ginger, cinnamon, saffron, lemon juice,water, salt and pepper.

Leave to marinade for at least an hour, or overnight in the ridge.

2 Preheat the oven to 190C. Spread the hazlenuts out on an oven tray and roast for 10 minutes, until lightly browned. Chop roughly and set aside..

3 Transfer the chicken and marinade to a roasting tray large enough to accommodate everything

 comfortably. arrange the chicken pieces skin-side up and put the tray in the oven for about 35 minutes.

4 While the chicken is roasting, mix the honey, rosewater and nuts together to make a rough paste.

Remove the chicken from the oven, spoon a generous amount of nut paste on to each piece and spread it to cover. Return to the oven for 5-10 minutes, until the chicken is cooked through and the nuts are golden brown.

5 Transfer the chicken to a seving dish.

Tip: reserve cooking juices and use to make cous cous to have with left over chicken

(Shown served with spicy squash with roasted pumpkin seeds and pangrattato)

(Courtesy of Ottolenghi, The Cookbook)