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Roast Chicken and Fennel with Clementines and Olives

A rich cacophony of flavours from tart to tangy to hot to sweet combine in the beautiful chicken sheet pan meal. Fennel and clementines join chicken pieces to roast till aromatic and browned. Perfect all year round.
Course Main Course
Cuisine Levantine
Keyword arak, castelvetrano olives, chicken, clementines, fennel
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 50 minutes
Marinating 6 hours
Servings 4

Ingredients

Marinade

  • 6 1/2 tbsp arak, or 100 ml, see Notes
  • 4 tbsp olive oil
  • Zest from one orange, use the orange for the below
  • 3 tbsp freshly squeezed orange juice
  • 3 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
  • 2 tbsp grainy mustard
  • 3 tbsp light brown sugar
  • 1/2 tsp chilli flakes, plus more for garnish

Chicken

  • 1 large chicken, cut into 8 pieces, about 2 3/4 lb or 1/3 kg, see Notes
  • 2 medium fennel bulbs, trimmed of tough outer leaves, and cut into 1/4 inch thick slices
  • 4 medium clementines, scrubbed, cut into 1/4 inch slices
  • 3/4 cup Castelvetrano or other briny green olive, or more if you really like olives
  • 2 tsp fennel seeds, crushed lightly
  • salt and pepper

Instructions

Marinade

  1. Combine all the marinade ingredients in a bowl and whisk.
  2. Place the chicken pieces, fennel slices, clementine slices, and olives in a large container which will hold everything snuggly. Pour the marinade over it all. Turn everything to get evenly coated. Place the lid on the container and store in the fridge for 6 hours, or overnight. Can do with a shorter marinating time if necessary.

Roast

  1. Preheat the oven to 475F.
  2. Place everything from the container onto a baking sheet or pan. It should be large enough that hopefully most will sit on one layer. Drizzle the marinade over everything. Scatter the fennel seeds over it all.

  3. Roast on the centre rack until the chicken is 165F and golden brown, about 45-50 minutes, depending on your oven, and the size of the chicken. If you want more colour and everything is cooked through, feel free to use the broiler for a minute or so, but keep an eye on it. Finish with a final sprinkle of salt and pepper.

  4. Serve with the juices, drizzling some over everything. Save some for the rice, potatoes ete that you wish to serve along side the chicken. Add a little chilli flake over everything for a bit of a kick.

Recipe Notes

Feel free to replace the arak with ouzo or pernod
You can use whole legs, drumsticks or thighs, bone-in and skin on instead of a whole chicken. Try to use at least the equivalent weight.

Inspired by Roast Chicken with Fennel and Clementines from 'Jerusalem' by Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi, taking it somewhere even a bit more adventurous!