Moroccan-Spiced Roast Chicken

I tried this for dinner tonight with two French friends and two other American friends. We were all amazed at how flavorful the spices were–some of us were nervous that it would be *too* spicy but it wasn’t at all. The vegetable mixture was beautiful as well–that was a fun surprise. I loved the directions to add the vegetables into the roasting pan halfway through the cooking time so that they didn’t get too soft–brilliant!

My only minor issue with the recipe was that it didn’t say to rub the spice mixture on the bottom of the bird–usually, recipes will tell you to turn the bird over a couple of times to ensure an even coating. I’ll definitely make this again and again as a fun way to switch up my usual roast chicken recipe.

How would you like your kitchen to smell as if you were preparing a nice North African couscous? That’s exactly how it seemed. The scents lifted you to the warmth of North Africa and from the first bite, we were hooked. Timewise, it was cooked to perfection. How much easier could this full meal be for a rushed work evening apart from waiting and longing to start eating?

The chicken was juicy and extremely tasty and the vegetables kept their unique tastes while providing the feeling of enjoying a couscous! This is one recipe we will definitely redo often at our home.

This is a simple yet tasty roast chicken. The Moroccan spices are a nice change to your regular citrus roast chicken, but the vegetables were just as tasty as the chicken.. I might even make the vegetables on their own with the spice mix. Next time, I think I’d mix the spices together before I prep the chicken so I’m not washing my hands quite so much.

This is a great recipe, the flavors dance well together leading you to a gastronomic bolero. I used a five-pound chicken and found that I had to lower my oven temp from 450°F to 375°F. I found that 425°F was too hot too quickly; I did truss the chicken which automatically required a bit more cooking time.

Also, I’d completely season the entire chicken overnight or even 2 hours before baking; this would allow for the flavors to further permeate the chicken.

The chicken alone here is a ten. As my husband said after taking his first bite of the chicken, “That’s a lot of flavors!” We used a 4 3/4 lb. air-dried free-range chicken. The recipe didn’t say how to place the bird on the sheet pan. We put the chicken breast-side down for the first 20 minutes and then turned it over for the next 10 minutes. That was the initial 30 minutes of cooking. That was when we were supposed to add the vegetables to the pan.

The skin was very golden and the chicken looked like it was done. We checked the temperature, and indeed it was done. We took the chicken off of the pan and put the veggies in. We wanted to cut down the cooking time since the chicken was done, so we switched on the convection oven, and put the veggies in. We checked them at 20 minutes, and they were done. After carving the chicken, (don’t know how it happened, but this is when a lot of chicken just kinda disappeared into our mouths before making it onto the plate…) we poured the juices that had accumulated while the chicken sat and waited for the vegetables to get done over the hen.

The chicken was wonderful! It was moist and chock full of flavor. The onions were great. The potatoes and the cauliflower were just okay. The vegetables could have benefited from being cooked with the chicken at the same time. I’ll try that the next time I make this. There will definitely be a next time, probably very soon. Excuse the run-on sentences. We just finished eating, and I can still taste all of the flavors. I am a bit enthusiastic, aren’t I? I do think that the size of the bird, and how to place it, are necessary for folks who may not be able to adjust a recipe to fit their bird.

Pantry staples and easy-to-get chicken, sweet potatoes, and cauliflower seemed a little unlikely at first but combined to make one of the best roast chicken recipes I’ve ever tasted (and my tablemates agreed)! All ingredients and directions worked just as written. If anyone at your table prefers a little less heat, you might consider reducing the red pepper flakes but my tasters (who are NOT spicy eaters) had no problem with the 3/4 teaspoon called for.

Identifying the four spices flavoring the chicken and vegetables provided some great table talk, too. Kristine Kidd calls this a “meal in one.” I accompanied this dish with sweet corn fregula (another LC recipe) and have to say it was an inspired combination. The author also suggests serving baklava to end the meal. Let me just add that chocolate also works very well. I was unfamiliar with Moroccan flavors but this recipe, from the seductive aroma of the spice and oil paste rubbed on the chicken to the finished product (a heavenly combination of aromas, textures, and tastes), made me want to explore much more. I can’t wait to serve this again!

I’ve just gotta say that I love being a tester for this site. Why? Because more often than not, through testing, I’m introduced to a recipe I otherwise might never have discovered, and it’s one that is so good that I’m sure it will become a regular in my cooking rotation. This dish is just such a recipe. From the very first read, I had a good feeling about this one.

The ingredients were all easy to put my hands on, the technique straightforward and well-articulated and the dish’s promise of big flavor is delivered in spades, with both the chicken and the veggies deeply flavorful, but not spicy from the mix of peppers, cumin, and cinnamon. The addition of lemon to the spice paste and the instruction to rub some under the skin and inside the cavity of the bird is brilliant, adding a lovely citrus note to the deep, exotic flavor of the rub.

The cooking times as written worked out perfectly delivering us a perfectly juicy, well-seasoned bit of deliciousness with a brick red, salt-crisped skin, right on time. As an added bonus, the veggie mix was a perfect complement to the star of the show, reinforcing the Moroccan theme with hardly any additional work. I just love the ease of cooking veggies this way, one-pot meals are indeed splendid. As if all this weren’t enough, the kids devoured every little vegetable scrap from their plates, no small feat considering that two in the mix were sweet potatoes and cauliflower, perennial losers in vegetable popularity rankings around these parts. We are sure to make this one again and again!

I was apprehensive at first about the temperature for the actual roasting of the bird. That being said I turned on the oven, lightly oiled the bottom of my new tagine, and proceeded. I made the spice paste as written, then prepared the bird and the vegetables. I was concerned at the 30-minute mark when I noticed how dark the bird was becoming, but added the vegetables and went ahead. It actually took closer to 50 minutes to finish, but that may have been the size of the bird.

I worried that it was burnt but such was not the case. We haven’t had such a juicy, tender, flavourful bird in a very long time. My family still talked about it the next day. They loved it so much there was none left for lunches. They asked me again this week when we can do this again. I’d highly recommend this one to chicken lovers everywhere.

Simple, delicious, and beautiful sitting on the platter! This is a one-pan meal that offers lots of good tastes and textures with the addition of the vegetables roasting on the pan with the chicken. I would tone down the spices for vegetables so that there is a contrast of flavor possible to those who might not be as fond of the Moroccan “taste” as others might be (as some at our table were.)

And if you are lucky enough to have any chicken leftovers–this makes a mean chicken salad in the best sense of the term!

I didn’t have a whole chicken for this recipe, so I used thighs and drumsticks. The spice mixture was perfect. Just enough spice, but not so much that you can’t taste what you’re eating. At first, I wasn’t sure about the combo of sweet potatoes and cauliflower with this, but once they were seasoned and roasted, I was in heaven. The roasting time was perfect. The chicken was moist, and the veggies were firm but tender. And my husband, who I can only get to eat veggies by tricking him, LOVED the cauliflower! This would be a great dish for entertaining, or for a nice casual family dinner. Definitely a keeper in my rotation!

Next time, I’ll make more of the spice mixture and save it to put on other things. I bet it would taste great on a burger, or on any roasted veggies, or a quick way to season a sautéed chicken breast.