There’s so much to love about this simple main course showstopper. It’s packed with sweet, dried fruits plus crunchy nuts and full of fragrant spices. Serve with Fabienne’s delicious barley salad that pairs perfectly with the juicy chicken.

Ingredients:
1 medium-sized roasting chicken (1.2 – 1/3kg) cut in 8 pieces (or a mixture of bone-in, skin-on pieces)
Sea salt and ground black pepper
2 tbsp of each of sweet paprika, turmeric, coriander, cumin
2 onions
6 garlic cloves
100g apricot jam
300g mixed dried fruits and nuts of your choice
100g flaked almonds
100g dried apricots, soft ready-to-eat variety
500ml water
A handful of parsley or a few thyme sprigs (leaves picked) to garnish
 

Method:

• Heat your oven to 200°C
• Slice the onions and garlic.
• Place the chicken in a roasting tray.
• Mix the spices, onions, garlic, jam and ½ – 1 tablespoon each of salt and pepper. (NOTE: Fabienne says: you may wish to start with a teaspoon of each and add more to taste. I like salt and feel it is needed to balance the sweetness, but it is a matter of personal preference.) 
• Rub this mixture all over the chicken pieces. Add the 500ml water to the roasting tin.The chicken will create its own gravy with its own fat — no need to add any oil.
• Cook the chicken pieces with the skin side down for 40 minutes.
• Remove from the oven, turn them over, add the nuts and fruits (turning the mixture over so they are coated in the juices and properly combined with the meat mixture) and cook for another 40 minutes. They might be done a little sooner, so check for done-ness by piercing one of the thickest pieces and seeing if the juices run clear from about an hour total cooking time. The breast pieces will cook faster than the dark meat.
• Serve garnished with the parsley or thyme

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Find the pearl barley salad accompaniment here.