Roasted Chicken with Clementines
Roasted Chicken with Clementines is a masterful Yotam Ottolenghi recipe from his seminal cookbook, Jerusalem. This easy sheet pan chicken dinner has layer upon layer of flavor punctuated by those gorgeous charred clementines!
Chicken with clementines is a tribute to the new cookbook Jerusalem by Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi, the two London-based chefs who grew up in opposite ends of Jerusalem and have teamed together to share classic dishes filtered through their very different perspectives.
There are several layers of anise flavor in this dish with the fresh fennel, fennel seeds, and the anise liqueur. There is a sweetness from the orange juice and the brown sugar, a slight bitterness from the clementines, and a sharpness from the mustard and lemon. The aroma of fresh thyme hovers over it all. It’s sophisticated and unusual.
- 1/2 cup arak, an anise liqueur, substitute Pernod or ouzo
- 1/2 cup olive oil
- 1/4 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
- 1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 4 Tbsp grainy mustard
- 4 Tbsp light brown sugar
- 2 medium fennel bulbs trimmed, halved lengthwise, and then cut each half into 4 wedges
- 1 large chicken, cut into eight pieces
- 4 clementines cut horizontally into 1/4″ slices, leave the peel on
- several fresh sprigs of thyme, leaves removed
- 2 1/2 tsp fennel seeds, lightly crushed (I use a rolling pin)
- salt & freshly ground pepper
- flat leaf parsley to garnish