Garlic butter roast chicken with tomatoes & giant couscous
- Preparation and cooking time
- Prep:
- Cook:
- Easy
- Serves 4
Skip to ingredients
Ingredients
- 3 garlic cloves, crushed
- 75g butter, softened
- 10g basil, finely chopped, plus a few large whole leaves to serve
- 1 chicken (about 1.4kg)
- 1 tbsp olive oil, plus a drizzle
- 1 lemon, cut into wedges
- 200g giant or pearl couscous
- 75g pitted black olives
- 1 chicken stock cube
- 650g tomatoes, larger tomatoes halved or quartered (try a mixture of colours and sizes)
Method
- STEP 1
Combine the garlic, butter and basil in a bowl. Heat the oven to 190C/170C fan/gas 5.
- STEP 2
Gently ease the skin away from the chicken breasts and spread the herby garlic butter underneath. Put the chicken in a roasting tin and rub the olive oil over the skin, then season. Arrange the lemon wedges around the chicken in the tin and roast for 1 hr.
- STEP 3
Lift the chicken and lemon wedges out of the tin onto a plate. Tip the couscous and olives into the roasting juices in the tin, crumble in the stock cube and top up with enough hot water from the kettle to cover the couscous by 1cm (about 300ml). Put the chicken back in the tin on top of the couscous.
- STEP 4
Toss the tomatoes with a drizzle of olive oil and some seasoning. Spoon the tomatoes into the tin around the chicken, ensuring the surface of the couscous mixture is completely covered. (If you can’t fit all the tomatoes in, you can put the rest in a second small roasting tin to cook alongside the chicken.)
- STEP 5
Bake for 30 mins until the chicken skin is crispy, the tomatoes are softened and bursting, and the couscous is fluffy and tender. Scatter over the whole basil leaves and serve with the roasted lemon wedges alongside to squeeze over.
