Chicken with Olives and Lemon (+ Carrot Salad)

After making paleo bastila last month, I got inspired to get some Moroccan cookbooks from the library. One of them is my favorite so far, with stunning photos and lots of great recipes: The Food of Morocco. Yesterday I made a couple of recipes - one of the chicken/olive/preserved lemon ones (there are at least 6 or 8 different recipes focused on these three ingredients), and a traditional carrot salad. I LOVED the carrot salad - it was spicy and fresh tasting, and the chicken was good too.

It was the first time I tried cooking a chicken on a can - it was super easy and cooked faster than roasting and got a nice crispy skin. Plus it was very comical to see the chicken all standing upright on a can! Why is that so funny and bizarre? I will totally cook chickens this way form now on - though probably I'll go even simpler and not even do the sauce. The sauce was good, and had nice preserved lemon flavor - but also not totally necessary for me. My adaptation below does not include garlic or saffron, but put both in if you have them!

I served the whole feast with some cauliflower couscous and ate a stuffed date for dessert. Yum.

Carrot Salad with Cumin, Cinnamon, and Sweet Paprika
1 pound (6-8) carrots, trimmed
1 tsp sweet paprika
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/4 tsp cayenne
1/8 tsp ground ceylon cinnamon
Juice of 1 lemon
1/2 tsp sugar (or 1 drop stevia)
fine sea salt
Extra virgin olive oil for drizzling
chopped flat leaf parsley for garnish

1. Early in the day, or the day before: Steam carrots over boiling water until just tender, about 10-15 minutes.
2. Dice the carrots and put in a bowl. Mix with the spices, lemon juice, sugar, and pinch of salt. Cool, then cover and chill until ready to serve.
3. Just before serving, correct the seasoning with salt. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with parsley.

Roast Chicken on a Faux Spit with Lemon and Olives 
One 3 1/2 pound chicken
1 preserved lemon
Coarse salt
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground white pepper
1/2 tsp ground turmeric
3 T chopped flat leaf parsley
2 T extra virgin olive oil
2 T ghee
1 c chicken stock
2 med onions, grated, rinsed, and squeezed dry
12 green-ripe or red olives, pitted*

1. About 4 hours before serving, rinse the chicken inside and out and pat dry. Slide your fingers under the skin to loosen the flesh.

After cooking the wings tucked themselves in!

2. Remove the pulp from the preserved lemon, chopping and saving the peel for the sauce. Add the lemon pulp (4 cloves garlic and saffron water if using), 1 tsp salt, ginger, pepper, turmeric, herbs, oil, and ghee to a blender and grind to a paste. Insert some of the paste under the chicken skin, and "massage" onto the flesh. Put some of the paste in the cavity, and rub the rest all over the skin. Put the chicken in a bowl, cover, and refrigerate for 1-2 hours.
3. About 2 hours before you plan to serve the chicken, remove it from the fridge. Position a rack on the lowest shelf of the oven and preheat oven to 400 degrees.
4. Set a beer/soda can in a shallow baking dish, and stand the chicken on it. Add one cup of water to the pan, and roast for 45 minutes to an hour, until a thermometer set deep into the inner thigh reaches 165 degrees.
5. Meanwhile, add the chicken stock to the marinade bowl, then scrape all the liquid and marinade into a 9" skillet. Add the onions and cook, stirring, until the onions turn golden brown (10-15 minutes). Add the olives and reserved lemon peel and bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside.
6. Transfer the chicken to a carving board and let rest for 5-10 minutes before carving.
7. Meanwhile, skim the fat from the juices in the baking dish (I actually just added all the juices, fat included), add the juices to the skillet, and boil down to a thick, unctuous sauce.
8. Carve the chicken and serve with the sauce.

*I had a hard time finding unflavored olives, so used some of the kalamata type ones. Because they are brined with vinegar and other spices, I did several cold water rinses to get ride of it so that the olives would not taste strange in this dish.