Bedouin Chicken

Although this is done with barley, you could use another grain of choice such as bulgar wheat, quinoa, orzo, brown rice, millet or couscous. 

Ingredients:

5ml olive oil

1 small onion, finely chopped

60g cooked barley

1 small apple, diced

4 fresh dates, stoned and chopped

30g raisins, well washed

5ml chopped almonds

2.5ml allspice (ground cumin)

2.5ml cinnamon

1 x 1.4kg chicken

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Juice of half a lemon

1 lemon, cut into 8 pieces length ways

Method:

Heat the oil and fry onions until just transparent. Put the onions, together with all the other stuffing ingredients and spices, in a mixing bowl and combine. Stuff the chicken with the mixture and tie it up. Transfer the chicken to a roasting pan, season liberally with salt and pepper and a squeeze of lemon juice.

Heat the oven to 220˚C. Put the chicken into the oven and cook for 10 minutes, the turn the oven down to 190 ˚C and continue to roast for 1 ¼ hours or until the juices run clear from the thigh when you pierce it with a skewer.

Serve with a hot salad of brinjal, courgette, apple, sweet potato and onion roasted with garlic and cumin seeds, garnished with sesame seeds or almonds, or with a green or rocket salad.