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Roast Chicken With Apricots and Olives
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- Total Time
- 1 hour, plus at least 2 hours’ marinating
- Rating
- Notes
- Read community notes
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Ingredients
- 3½ to 4pounds bone-in chicken pieces (see Note)
- 1tablespoon kosher salt
- 1½teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
- ¼cup fresh lemon juice, plus 1 lemon, sliced and seeded
- ¼cup fresh blood orange or regular orange juice
- ¼cup honey
- 4 to 6garlic cloves, thinly sliced
- ¾teaspoon dried thyme
- 3tablespoons ground sumac
- 4tablespoons olive oil
- 1cup (6 ounces) dried apricots
- 1cup (4 ounces) pitted Castelvetrano olives with 2 tablespoons brine
- 4large or 8 small shallots, roots trimmed, peeled and cut lengthwise into quarters or halves
- ¼cup dry white wine
Preparation
- Step 1
Slash each piece of chicken through the skin a few times, about 1 inch deep. Season with the salt and pepper and place in a large bowl or large resealable plastic bag. Whisk lemon juice, orange juice, honey, garlic, thyme, sumac and 3 tablespoons olive oil in a bowl to combine. Add lemon slices, apricots, olives and olive brine. Pour the marinade over the chicken and cover tightly or remove as much air as possible before sealing it. Set on a small sheet pan and refrigerate for at least 2 hours and up to 24 hours, turning the bag from time to time.
- Step 2
Position a rack 8 inches from the broiler heat source. Place an oven rack in the lower third of the oven and heat oven to 450 degrees. Toss shallots with remaining tablespoon oil and spread out on a large sheet pan, cut sides down. Place on the lower rack and cook, turning once, until starting to turn golden, 10 to 12 minutes.
- Step 3
Remove the pan from the oven and use your hands and a slotted spoon to scoop the chicken, apricots, lemon slices and olives onto the pan, reserving the marinade. Arrange in an even layer with the chicken skin side up and return to the oven. Cook for 15 minutes, baste the chicken with the drippings, and cook until chicken juices run clear, about 10 minutes longer. Remove the pan from the oven. Heat the broiler to high.
- Step 4
Pour the reserved marinade and wine over the chicken, and broil until the chicken is browned and the liquid is thickened, 3 to 5 minutes. If the apricots start to get too dark, turn them over in the sauce. Transfer to a platter. If you used chicken breasts, cut them in half. Pour the sauce over everything or serve it on the side.
- You can buy your favorite bone-in parts or cut a whole 3½- to 4-pound chicken into bone-in pieces: 2 breasts, 2 thighs, 2 drumsticks, 2 wings.
Private Notes
Cooking Notes
Will the marinade be heated up long enough to deal with the raw chicken juices in it, if it’s just under the broiler for a few minutes?
The cooking time of the chicken only adds up to 28-30 minutes(excluding shallots). Can this be right?
This recipe is delicious but unnecessarily complicated. I don’t understand why the wine is left out of the marinade and only added at the end nor do I see the need to cook the shallots on a bottom rack before adding the chicken and moving to the top rack. I just threw all the ingredients together in the marinade and then baked it all together. I baked at a lower temp (400) for 45 minutes, then increased the temp to 450 for the last 15 minutes for browning. It came out perfect and saucy.
I am lazy, I guess, but I would simplify steps. After cooking the shallots separately, I'd just put all the other ingredients including marinade, in the pan, mix them around, and roast, turning them (especially the chicken), several times, so it browns--rather than basting it repeatedly. This is what I do when I cook chicken with oranges and honey, for example, and turning it when roasting at 400 cooks it nicely and caramelizes things. And I won't worry about those raw chicken juices then.
Where does one get sumac? I know that's a tree.
This was very tasty. Substituted sliced Meyer lemon for sliced lemon. The sauce didn't thicken during the broiling. Once the broiling was done, I removed everything but the liquid from the sheet pan, poured the liquid off, and reduced it a little on the stovetop before serving.
Reminder. Bone-in chicken can profit from a lot of salt in the marinade, so don’t scant out some qualm about sodium. Almost shockingly salty marinade yields the most flavorful roasted chicken.
This was an excellent Passover dish that will certainly be on repeat in our house. A super option instead of brisket. We loved the tangy marinade, and the apricots/olives balance each other out with that sweet and salty mix. The shallots get soft and silky as you cook them. I opted to add the wine to the marinade and cook all of it at 400 for 45 minutes, then blasted under the broiler for the last few so the chicken had perfect, golden, crispy skin. Loved it!
I had a whole chicken which I spatchcocked. I put the slits in it and put some of the slivered garlic in them. I rubbed it with some of the sumac and salt and pepper. I made the marinade with everything else and poured it over the chicken in a roasting pan. I let it marinate in the refrigerator for several hours. When it was time to cook the seder that evening, I stuck it in the oven with everything else at 400 and cooked it about 1 hour. It was delicious.
Best guess is that the marinade "cooks" the chicken to some extent and, therefore, a relatively short cooking time for the chicken is possible. Note: 450 is a really hot oven, and the instructions do specify "until chicken juices run clear". When the marinade is added to create the sauce, it's going to start cooking even before it goes into the oven as the pan and chicken are quite hot.
Hi Anne- Yes, absolutely- it should be boiling under the broiler as it thickens.
Great recipe. Made for my wife and I using just 4 skin on, bone in chicken thighs but everything else unchanged. Excellent sauce over rice and those caramelized by the broiler lemon slices were delicious. A real keeper.
I made this recipe as written and it was decent. If I make it again, I will double the marinade and add more salt and herbs as I think it needed more flavor. I also had to lengthen the cooking time quite a bit to cook the chicken through, but to be fair my chicken pieces were quite large. The sauce, even though there wasn’t a ton of it, did not thicken in the oven, so it would need to be transferred to the stove top or left in the oven after removing the chicken in order to thicken.
The sumac used is ground from the berries of a Mid-Eastern shrub that isn't poisonous. It's available in many spice stores and is one of the main ingredients of Za'taar. Vitamin C gives sumac berries their signature tart, slightly astringent, lemony flavor.
Hi Amy- It is- it is almost done before the broiling step. If you want to be certain, use an instant read thermometer to be sure it is at 165 degrees.
Read every single note on this recipe and landed on a pack of boneless skinless thighs and a pack of chicken breasts—- marinated it all together for 24 hours. Roasted in a roasting pan on top of the shallots at 400 degrees for 45 minutes. Added olives/apricots halfway through the 45 minutes and roasted for an additional 15 minutes at 415
very tasty. the sumac and lemon balance so nicely against the sweet apricots and shallots. and those olives….well, they are always good.
delicious. make more marinade than it says. the more juice the better. this got better each day after making it.
Made this recipe as written. I quartered a whole chicken and marinated it overnight. It was delicious! The chicken was tender, moist, and flavorful from the marinade. My guests were surprised at such an exotic and unusual pairing (of the apricots and olives), but they all loved it and ate every last bit. I'll definitely make again.
Made this recipe for the second seder last night. prepared it on Monday night. After reading all of the comments, was still confused how long to cook it. Although delicious, almost all of the marinade was gone. next time I will probably double the liquid. Cooked for 15 minutes without the marinade, added the marinade for another 30 minutes. 375 in a convection oven.
For the large bone-in chicken breasts (~350 g each) this was not enough cooking time. My high broiler was too hot and too close at the end and started burning the chicken skin, shallots and apricots. I would recommend cooking for 25 min and then basting (if there is enough juice). Then cook for another 15 min and check with instant read thermometer to read between 150-160. Then I would add marinade with wine (I agree the wine can be added to marinade right away). Broil for 5 minutes on lower rac
Does anyone have a favorite wine pairing with this? Thanks in advance!
Amazing, had it with Passover. Whole family gave it five stars.
This worked fine with wine in marinade,shallots cooked with chicken not before, cooked at 400 x 40’, then 450 x 15’. I used only 1.5 Tbs. of sumac and still thought there was too much.
Sumac can be bought at a Middle Eastern market. I prefer dried prunes and less honey for a more savory flavor, but I understand the sweetness is meant for the sweet life the Jews will have leaving Egypt.
Good taste, but let's give credit where credit is due...this is a riff on (or rip off of?) the Silver Palate's classic chicken marbella .
This was delicious. I streamlined a bit due to my timeframe. I marinated the chicken with all ingredients for an hour, then transferred to 400 degree oven and baked until done. Shallots were cooked in the sauce. It seemed overly complicated to try to cook the marinade separately, and this way the marinade was definitely cooked. The chicken browned easily. I basted it a couple of times with the marinade. I would make this again.
Excellent. A big hit. Marinated in ziplock bag overnight. Used double layer of parchment paper so cleanup was a breeze
I forgot to add the wine. Was still great. Will use twice as many apricots next time. They were ridiculously delicious. A terrific, easy dinner.
All 3 generations of our family liked this a lot at our seder, and my husband said it was the best chicken he's ever had, even in a restaurant. It was moist and flavorful. I followed the recipe exactly and marinated it overnight. The sheet pan was fairly crowded with pieces of chicken but it cooked perfectly, perhaps because I used boneless, skinless chicken
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