I couldn’t tell you the last time I bought a frozen roast chicken to cook at home. And to think that’s all I grew up with. I was involved in plucking many a chicken, duck or goose on my Mum’s Aunty’s farm and we always had a roast for lunch every Sunday. When we got home from Sunday School and church on Sunday, the roast was always put on and the smells were just fantastic. All the roast vegetables, fresh beans, homestyle gravy and usually a pudding of some sort. Winter, summer, autumn or spring, we always had a Sunday roast. It always set us up well for the meat supply for the week too for school lunches and other meals.

Recently, I was asked to try a Steggles frozen chicken and I was pleasantly surprised that for under $9 I could buy a size 19 (or 1.9kg) chicken. It’s huge! (Well, huge for us.) Those little roast chickens you pick up from the supermarket are about half the size. I don’t remember my Mum or Nanna ever doing too much with the chicken but I do remember them both making wonderful stuffing (or seasoning). Nanna always made her with fresh herbs and onion and Mum’s was always with onion and dried mixed herbs. I love stuffing (and so does my son). They both used stale or older bread to make the stuffing but I wanted to try something different.

I was going to try quinoa but decided on keeping with a Middle Eastern theme and use couscous with Moroccan spices. You can buy a Moroccan blend, which I had a little leftover but usually spices like dried coriander and cumin, allspice, cinnamon, cayenne pepper, ground ginger and nutmeg are a pretty good start. I added heaps of freshly grated lemon zest to both the butter rub I used on the outside of the bird and inside the cavity with the couscous. I also added half of the lemon I used to get juice from straight into the cavity with the couscous. The aroma was fantastic while it was roasting!

I must try it again with quinoa but I’m certainly doing it again with couscous. It makes a complete meal with just a few sides. (I’ll blog about the sides I served with this roast in a couple days.) The chicken was beautifully moist and there was heaps of meat. I’ve got 2 more meals to make out of this bird so stay tuned. I also think I’m going back to cooking my own chickens. I can control the flavour, the way its cooked and can get a whole lot more meat I normally get from a rotisserie supermarket chicken.

Moroccan Roast Chicken with Couscous

• Steggles frozen chicken
• 1/2 cup couscous
• 1 cup chicken stock
• 3 tbs butter
• 1 lemon, for both zest and juice
• Moroccan spices
• red capsicum (bell peppers), finely diced
• 1/2 onion, finely diced
• salt and peppers
• 2 onions, chopped roughly

Optional:
dates, dried apricots, almonds or pine nuts (I’m not a person who likes fruit in savoury dishes but if you want to experience a full Moroccan flavour, these are essential ingredients.)

1. If chicken is frozen, defrost the previous day in the refrigerator.
2. Preheat oven to 200 deg C.
3. Heat chicken stock and when boiling, remove from heat and add couscous. Stir until couscous has absorbed liquid.
4. Add 1 tbs butter, 2 tbs of Moroccan seasoning, 1/2 of grated lemon zest, juice from half of lemon, salt and pepper, red pepper and onion.
5. Add to cavity of chicken and add the squeezed half of lemon after stuffing has been added.
6. Cut a slit to underside of one of the chicken legs and slide the other leg into it to secure.
7. Add other half of grated lemon zest and 1 tbs of Moroccan spices to 2 tbs of butter. Spread over breast part of chicken.
8. Place chicken on top of chopped onions and cook in hot oven for 30 mins. Reduce temperature to 160 deg C (fan forced) for approx 1 hour or until juices run clear from the thigh of the chicken.

Disclaimer:  This is not a sponsored post. I did receive a gift card to purchase the chicken from the supermarket. All thoughts, opinions and photos are my own.