Denise says:
This is a great family recipe, full of flavour and easy to make. I have used dates and red wine to provide a tasty sauce, which I like to mop up with couscous or rice.
It is an ideal recipe for Rosh Hashanah as I have chosen a dish with interesting symbolic connections with the festival. There are numerous significant foods, which are either connected through their Hebrew word or by their shape and symbolic meaning. Dates are one of these special foods.
The Hebrew word "Tamri" or dates, sounds like the word "sheyitamu," which means, "that they be consumed." We say a Yehi Ratzon that hopes that our enemies be consumed.
Preparation Time: 10 minutes Can be made in advance
Cooking Time: 1 ¼ hours
Serves: 6- 8 people
Ingredients:
6 chicken breasts – boned with skin on2 lemons – cut into slices
250ml chicken stock
250ml red wine
1 onion – skinned and roughly chopped
500g dried vacuum-packed dates – stone removed
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
500g Cous cous
300ml hot chicken stock
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
To garnish: 3 tablespoons toasted flaked almonds
Method
1) Pre-heat the oven to 200 C /400ºF/ Gas mark 6.2) Loosen the skin of the breast side of the chicken with a knife. Put the sliced lemons under the skin and place breast side down into a large roasting tin. Add the chopped onion.
3) Pour the chicken stock and red wine over the chicken.
4) Empty the packet of dates into the roasting tin and season with salt and freshly ground black pepper.
5) Cover with aluminium foil and roast for 1 hour. Remove the chicken from the oven, turn it over and return to the oven with out the foil covering for a final 15 minutes.
6) To toast the almonds, place in a dry frying pan and cook until golden. Shake the pan from time to time so that they are golden all over. Remove and set aside until required.
7) To make the cous cous put it in a serving dish. Pour hot stock over the grains and then immediately cover with plastic wrap. Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper and drizzle over the olive oil. (It can be made in advance and reheated in the microwave just before serving.)
8) Cut the chicken in to 8 pieces and carve the breast meat.
To serve the stylish way: Serve the chicken on a bed of couscous and garnished with toasted almonds