Chicken with Lemons and Olives

When planning this week's menu, I got most excited about this meal because it involved cooking a whole chicken. There is just something really satisfying about cooking a big 'ol bird, which is probably why I get super excited about Thanksgiving!

This would be a good meal to make if you're having people over for dinner or for someone you've just started dating because for some reason, people get super impressed when you roast a bird. Also, this recipe is incredibly easy but it doesn't look like it because of the roasting a whole bird and because you're using ingredients people don't normally use. Unless you're Greek, then you probably use these ingredients fairly often. Don't make this for Greek people if you're trying to impress them. They'll probably be like "This was the first meal I made when I was eight" and womp womp.

The ingredients

3 - 3.5 lb chicken. I didn't include the chicken in the picture because of chicken juices and hello? Salmonella is a real thing, y'all, and I didn't want it poisoning my counter top. I named her Mary because I'm crazy.

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground tumeric

2 tbsp olive oil

1 large onion, thinly sliced

2 inch piece of root ginger, grated. As I was about to grate my ginger, I remembered I got rid of my grater last month because the handle broke so instead of grating the ginger, I minced the shit out of it. This is what ginger root looks like when you've minced the shit out of it.

2.5 cups of chicken stock. So remember how in the last post I said I like the Kitchen Basics brand a lot? Well I prefer Better Than Boullion. Yes it's full of MSG and it's not organic or GMO free or artisanal but it taste good and I like that it's not as diluted as other stocks. But Kitchen Basics is a good alternative, it really is!

2 preserved lemons or limes, or fresh lemons cut into wedges. A few months ago I was going to make some preserved lemons (basically lemons in salt water that are allowed to ferment) but I ended up using the jar to hold the lemons to make kombucha and I was too lazy to go out and buy another jar. I didn't end up making them and when I read this recipe, I regretted not going out and buying that stupid jar. My laziness does me in, again!

1/2 cup pitted brown olives. I used a combination of brown and black olives because, oddly, the three year old LOVES black olives and I wanted to increase the chances of her eating this.

1 tbsp honey

4 tbsp chopped fresh coriander. What is with the Greeks and coriander????

Salt and ground pepper to taste

Coriander sprigs to garnish (WWWWWWTTTTTTFFFFF?!)

Coriander is seriously the worst. I bet all the evil dictators of the world just love coriander.

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Mix the cinnamon, tumeric, salt, and pepper in a bowl and rub it all over the chicken.

Heal the oil in a large frying pan and fry the chicken on all sides until golden; then transfer the chicken to an oven proof dish. I fried my chicken in my cast iron skillet. If you don't have a cast iron skillet, I can't even talk to you.

But really, if you're serious about cooking, you should own one. They're extremely versatile, good for pan frying or baking or defending your home in case you have an intruder, and they're relatively inexpensive. There are also health benefits as it leaches iron into your food. I'm borderline anemic so any time I make red meat on my skillet, I'm all "I AM THE STRONGEST PERSON ALIVE!" And then I try to lift the skillet over my head and I fail because I have zero upper body strength.

I used a Dutch oven to cook my chicken. Again, a very helpful and versatile kitchen tool. I've used it to make stews, roasts, I've even baked bread in it. Both my cast iron skillet and Dutch oven are by Lodge. You can find them on Amazon for under $100 and they last forever!

Add the sliced onion to the pan and fry for three minutes. Add the ginger and stock and bring to a boil. Pour over the chicken, cover with a lid, and bake in the oven for 30 minutes.

During this 30 minute break you can relax, start an episode of Making a Murderer, OR, you can do what I did and finish some laundry, work on a blog post, and hide from your kids. You do you!

Remove the chicken from the oven and add the lemons, olives, and honey. Bake, uncovered, for another 45 minutes.

You can continue to relax and finish your episode during this time OR, and I'm sure you'll choose my option, finish your blog post and try to out step your husband in your FitBit Workweek Warrior Challenge.

Also during this time I made a Simple Cooked Salad of a chopped green pepper, quartered tomatoes, half a seeded cucumber sliced, and chopped onion. I put all the veggies in my skillet and simmered in some water for a few minutes. When the veggies were done, I drained them and poured a dressing of olive oil, lemon juice, and minced garlic on top.

And then the chicken was done!

Y'all, Mary looks so good, right?! I let her rest for a few minutes because that's the polite thing to do to any roasted meat and she'd had a rough hour and a quarter being roasted.

Then I cut her and shredded all the meat. Sorry Mary. The meat and skin just fell off and I hear that's a good thing.

Mary was delicious! I don't even like chicken skin but I literally gobbled that thing up. Didn't even care how gross I looked. It was extremely savory but juuuuust a little sweet, I'm thinking that was the honey. Dur. The meat was really juicy, even the breast, and was even better when eaten with the olives.

The salad was gross, the end. Don't make that salad or maybe make it but don't boil the veggies.

The three year old did NOT like the olives but she did eat all the chicken. The one and half year old had none of it and instead ate some nut mix I bought at Costco. The husband loved it and there was nothing left for the dogs.

I will save this recipe for the future because it was super easy to make and "OMG" good! And also, I want to impress all my non-Greek friends.