Roasted Chicken With Preserved Lemons

- Total Time
- 1 hour 45 minutes
- Rating
- Comments
- Read comments
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Ingredients
- 23½-pound chickens
- 4preserved lemons
- 1tablespoon ground cumin
- Salt and black pepper to taste
- 4tablespoons unsalted butter
- 2tablespoons honey
Preparation
- Step 1
Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Cut the preserved lemons into quarters and remove the rinds from the flesh, reserving both. Create a pocket between the skin and meat of each chicken breast. Slide pieces of the lemon rind, pith side down, into each pocket, two pieces per breast. Then rub the chickens with the remaining lemon flesh. Sprinkle the ground cumin over the birds and season with the salt and pepper.
- Step 2
Set chickens on a roasting rack in a large roasting pan and cook for 20 minutes. Remove the chickens and spread butter over the breasts, then drizzle with the honey. Lower oven temperature to 400 degrees. Roast for 30 to 50 minutes, or until the skin is a burnished brown.
- Step 3
Remove from oven, and allow to rest for 15 or 20 minutes.
- Step 4
Reduce juice from pan over medium heat. Pour over carved chicken.
Private Notes
Comments
That is ALOT of preserved lemon. I was born in Morocco not sure I can handle that much. I did one lemon for chicken and it turned out just perfect. There's nothing wrong with stuffing the cavity with some thyme and sage if you have any. Also I use olive oil instead of butter. Served with roasted sweet potatoes. Perfect!
The math here doesn't work. 4 lemons cut into quarters = 16 pieces of lemon. 2 chickens = 4 breasts using 2 pieces per breast = 8 pieces of lemon. Recipe sounds great, but I think you've got 2 lemons left over.
This is also good with preserved blood oranges.
This is such a great recipe--the photo of six naked chickens does not do it justice! Please bring back the photo of the very special holiday dinner that chef Sam Sifton and Mark Bittman cooked which featured Suzanne Goin's soubise recipe, their roast chicken with preserved lemons and the incredible baking powder biscuits (can't recall off hand who contributed that recipe). Classic and worth doing again and again.
This came out too salty. Skip adding more salt, the preserved lemons are already very salty and use less preserved lemons. The cumin, lemon, touch of honey combo was quite good though.
I love roasting 1 bird in a Dutch oven over some cauliflower florets. Cook some rice on the side and you have an instant meal.
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