Middle-eastern chicken with fetta sauce

Nana's roast chicken simply doesn't stand up to this spice-packed Middle-Eastern roast with a creamy feta sauce.

Ingredients

1/2 teaspoon saffron threads

2 tablespoon hot water

8 brown baby onions (200g)

2 tablespoon olive oil

4 clove garlic, chopped finely

4 potatoes (800g), chopped coarsely

2 fresh long green chillies

1 teaspoon fennel seeds, ground coarsely

1 1/2 teaspoon each ground cumin and coriander

4 tomatoes (600g), peeled, seeded, chopped coarsely

1/2 cup (125ml) dry white wine

1.8 kilogram chicken

2 tablespoon fresh coriander leaves

Fetta sauce

125 millilitre marinated fetta cheese, drained

1 teaspoon finely chopped preserved lemon rind

2 tablespoon finely chopped fresh coriander

1/4 cup (60ml) water

Method

1.Preheat oven to 125°C/250°F.

2.Soak saffron in the hot water in small heatproof bowl.

3.Meanwhile, peel onions, leaving root ends intact. Heat oil in 4-litre (16-cup) flameproof dish; cook onions, covered, stirring occasionally, over low heat until browned lightly. Add garlic, potato, chilli and spices; cook, stirring, 1 minute. Add saffron mixture, tomato and wine; bring to the boil, season. Cover; cook, in oven, 30 minutes.

4.Add chicken to dish; spoon some of the pan juices over chicken, cover; cook, in oven, 2 hours.

5.Meanwhile, make fetta sauce. Blend or process ingredients until smooth; season to taste.

6.Discard chillies from dish. Serve chicken mixture drizzled with fetta sauce; sprinkle with coriander.

Fetta sauce also makes an excellent accompaniment to slow-roasted lamb. To peel baby onions, pour boiling water over them in a heatproof bowl; stand 5 minutes, then the skins should just fall off.
Note

Women's Weekly Food

Trusted by home cooks for 90 years, The Australian Women’s Weekly’s Test Kitchen and cookbooks hold a singular place in shaping home cooking within the Australian culinary landscape. Today, the AWW Test Kitchen in Sydney is a thriving hub for food content, connected to two bustling photographic studios where a talented team of Australia’s best recipe developers, art directors, editors and photographers create our world class food content. Our recipes are thoroughly tested and tasted and given the Test Kitchen tick of approval, guaranteeing you’ll get great results in your home kitchen.

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