Chicken was the meal, but the chick peas starred

Chicken by Ian Thorpe - I'd never have guessed I'd have a cookbook by one of Australia's most celebrated swimmers.  Actually, I ended up veering a fair way off the path of his recipe, but I am certainly inspired by a recipe in Ian Thorpe Cook for your Life.  Hard to resist a roast chicken recipe in all it's variations.  Using Page 114 of the book as my inspiration, this is what I made for our special Friday night meal.

Couscous Stuffed Spiced Roast Chicken

1 x 1.8kg chicken
1 brown onion
240g/ 1/2 metric cup couscous
zest from 1/2 small lemon
1/2 tsp microplaned ginger
salt flakes to taste
freshly ground black pepper
2 tsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tbsp fresh coriander, chopped
1 heaped tablespoon flaked almonds, toasted

1 tbsp sweet paprika
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
125ml verjuice or white wine
Optional: 1 tin of chickpeas and two chunkily diced tomatoes to serve.

Preheat the oven to 180C.

Remove the fatty flap from back end of the chicken before washing and drying the chicken well.

Slice the onion into 1/2 cm rounds and lay them on a roasting tray, covering enough of the tray to be a base for the chicken later.

Combine the couscous, lemon, ginger, salt, pepper olive oil and 250ml boiling water into a bowl, stir it about, cover and leave to stand for about 5 minutes.  Fluff the couscous up, add the coriander and almonds and set aside.

In a small bowl bowl, stir together the paprika, cinnamon, cumin and coriander. 

Put a teaspoon of the spice mixture into the couscous and stir it in well.

Stuff the chicken with the couscous mixture and use a toothpick to seal the cavity.  Truss the chicken with string, ensuring the wings are tucked in next to the breast.

Place the chicken breast down on the 'trivet' of onions.  Sprinkle a few teaspoons worth of the spice mixture over the uppermost side of the chicken, sprinkle over salt flakes to taste.  Pour the verjuice into the roasting tray around the chicken.

Bake the chicken for 45 minutes.

Remove from the oven, very carefully turn the chicken over*, sprinkling the remaining spice mixture over the breast side of the chicken before returning for another 45 minutes cooking.

*I find the easiest way to turn a chicken is to use a wooden fork at the cavity end, and a small wooden spoon at the neck end, turning the chicken feet up and over, rather than turning like a rotisserie.

The onion imprints are hidden below the blanket of spices.

Take the chicken from the oven, check to see that it's cooked, and if ready set aside to rest for 10 minutes.  (Optional) Remove the onion from the tray with a slotted spoon.  Roughly chop the onions and add them to a previously drained and rinsed tin of chickpeas, two tomatoes that you've cut into chunks, a pinch of salt maybe a squeeze of lemon and a handful of chopped coriander.

Chop the chicken into pieces to serve with a simple salad (we had baby cos, cucumber and capsicum), the onion and chickpea salad if using and of course the stuffing.

Serves 6

The spices look darker in the image than they were in reality.  Shocking shot in all, the plate looks dirty - if you can tell considering it's out of focus - clearly (or UNclearly) I am out of practice with blogging about my cooking.  Anyway, the chicken was delicious.  I think, if Ian Thorpe was served this for tea, he might still recognise this meal by the spice blend.  I really enjoyed the salad I made to use up the onions (I hate to waste), the combination was a winner.  The chicken was moist, though I should have taken more care to cover the sides of the chicken with the spices.  Having said that, I note that the image in the cookbook shows that chicken was equally patchy on the sides.

Very enjoyable meal, I love spices when they are unapologetic like this.  But once again, the star here, if I do say so, was that simple addition of salad on the side.  Yay for me!