Ras el Hanout Baked Moroccan Chicken

For this Moroccan chicken I used the marinade for grilled Moroccan Chicken (but left the skin on and upped the garlic) and make a rack of sliced onions sprinkled with sumac olives to bake instead of grill (no BBQ).

Ingredients

• 4 chicken legs (skin on), separate leg from thigh
• 2 tsp kosher salt
• 2 Tbsp Ras el Hanout (buy it or make your own, there are plenty of DIY recipes on the web)
• 4 Tbsp olive oil
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• zest and juice of one lemon zest
• 2 onions peeled and sliced in rounds
• 1-2 tsp sumac
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup black or green olives
• olive oil for the roasting pan

Method

1. Mix the salt, Ras el Hanout, olive oil, garlic and zest of the lemon into a paste.
2. Coat the chicken pieces with the spice paste and marinate overnight (or at least an hour).
3. Preheat oven to 425 F.
4. Coat the bottom of a black cast iron frying pan (or line a cookie sheet with baker’s parchment).
5. Place layer of onion down and sprinkle with sumac and salt.
6. Put the chicken on top of the onion rack.
7. Throw in a handful of olives.
8. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until juices run clear.
9. Remove from the oven and let rest for 5 minutes.
10. Drizzle on the juice from the lemon.

Garnish with parsley and mint (optional). Serve with rice, couscous, quinoa or potatoes and a side of your favourite veg. In this case I had made Asparagus Salad so I served it with that. This was easily one of the most flavourful chicken dishes I have made in ages.