Roast Chicken With Carrots And Apples Recipe
The perfect one-pan meal
When Lior Lev Sercarz developed the Sweet Nigella spice blend for TT (see the recipe), he wanted to blend the flavors of Ashkenazic (Eastern European) and Sephardic (North African and Middle Eastern) cuisines. The warm notes of the ingredients create the perfect roast chicken dish. Tossing carrots with dates and pomegranate molasses creates a quick side that's a play on tzimmes, a traditional Jewish sweet carrot stew. Altogether, this one-pan meal is pure comfort food.
Since you are cooking everything in one pan, timing is everything. Right after you remove the chicken from the pan and while it's still screaming hot, add the carrots to get a nice sear before roasting everything in the oven. Follow these steps, and you're on your way to a beautiful roast chicken dinner every time.
To learn more, read "The Spice Savant."
Recipe from the Tasting Table Test Kitchen
Roast Chicken with Carrots and Apples
Although it's perfect for Rosh Hashanah, you’ll be making this roast chicken year-round.
Ingredients
- For the Chicken
- One 4-pound chicken, broken down into 8 pieces
- ¼ cup olive oil, divided
- 1½ tablespoons Sweet Nigella spice blend
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- For the Carrots
- 1½ pounds multicolor carrots, cut into ¾-inch pieces
- 2 tablespoons pomegranate molasses
- 2 teaspoons Sweet Nigella spice blend
- 5 garlic cloves, smashed
- 4 Medjool dates, pitted and roughly chopped
- 4 thyme sprigs
- 1 Granny Smith apple, cored and cut into ½-inch pieces
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Directions
- Prepare the chicken: In a large bowl, toss the chicken with 2 tablespoons of the olive oil and the spice blend. Cover the bowl in plastic wrap and let marinate in the refrigerator for 1 hour.
- Meanwhile, prepare the carrots: In a medium bowl, toss all of the carrot ingredients together and set aside.
- Preheat the oven to 400º. In a 12-inch cast-iron skillet or a small roasting pan, heat the remaining 2 tablespoons of olive oil over medium-high heat. Season the chicken pieces with salt and pepper, then sear, flipping once, until golden brown, 2 to 3 minutes per side. Transfer the chicken to a plate, add the carrot mixture to the searing-hot pan, then return the chicken over the carrots.
- Roast in the oven until an instant-read thermometer reads 160º when inserted into the chicken, 18 to 20 minutes. Transfer the chicken to a cutting board to rest and tent with foil for 5 minutes to carry the internal temperature to 165º before carving. Let the carrots continue to roast in the oven while the chicken rests, 5 minutes.
- Remove the carrot mixture from the oven and transfer to a platter. Top with the roasted chicken, then serve.