Harissa Chicken Traybake

Method

1. Whisk the harissa, yoghurt, 2 tablespoons of olive oil, the garlic, lemon zest and salt together in a large bowl until the marinade is an even brick red. Stir in the chopped preserved lemon skin now if you are using it.
2. Add the chicken and turn every piece until it is coated. Leave it at room temperature for 30 minutes, or cover and refrigerate for up to 24 hours, taking it out half an hour before it goes in the oven.
3. Heat the oven to 200°C, or 180°C fan-forced.
4. Toss the potatoes and onion wedges with the remaining tablespoon of olive oil, salt and pepper in a large roasting tray, then spread them into a single layer. Crowding is what steams them instead of roasting them.
5. Sit the chicken on top, skin side up and spaced apart. Scrape the marinade left in the bowl over the chicken only. Keep it off the potatoes, where it burns.
6. Roast for 25 minutes.
7. Turn the potatoes over in the fat that has run down from the chicken, then return the tray for another 20 minutes.
8. Check it. The skin should be blistered and dark red at the edges, the potatoes tender at the point of a knife, and the juices at the bone clear, about 75°C on a thermometer pushed into the thickest thigh.
9. Rest the tray for 5 minutes. Squeeze a lemon wedge over the top, drizzle with pomegranate molasses, scatter the herbs and serve with the loosened yoghurt on the side.

Make ahead, leftovers and the rest of the jar

The marinade keeps three days in a covered container, so you can mix it on Sunday and use it on Wednesday. The chicken itself sits in it happily for 24 hours and no longer, because past that the salt starts to firm the flesh and the texture goes ropey. Cooked, the tray keeps two days. Reheat it at 200°C for eight minutes rather than in the microwave, which softens the skin and the potatoes at once.

Leftover meat pulled off the bone is better the second night than it was the first. Warm it through in a pan with a splash of water, pile it onto flatbread with the yoghurt and a handful of salad, or stir it through couscous with the potatoes chopped small. If a tablespoon of paste is left in the jar, loosen it with olive oil and lemon juice and it dresses a bowl of grains on its own. For a gentler tray on the same principle, our citrusy chicken, fennel and potato traybake swaps the chilli for citrus and fennel.

Once open, the jar lives in the fridge and holds its flavour for about six weeks. Use a dry spoon every time, smooth the surface and keep a thin film of olive oil over the top. Oil separating out is normal, so stir it back through.

Common questions

What is rose harissa?

Rose harissa is a North African chilli paste made from red chilli, garlic, salt and oil, spiced with cumin, coriander seed and caraway, with dried rose petals ground in. The petals are not there to make it taste floral. They soften the edge of the chilli, so the paste tastes of sweet cooked chilli and toasted spice first and the heat arrives a beat later and builds slowly. It is a cooking paste, not a hot sauce.

How much harissa paste per chicken?

Three tablespoons for 1.2kg of bone-in pieces, which is about half a 130g jar and roughly one teaspoon a head plus a little for the tray. A whole 1.6kg bird takes two tablespoons, because the paste sits on the outside rather than coating eight separate pieces. Boneless thigh fillets need less again, about two tablespoons per 800g, since they cook faster and the crust has less time to mellow.

What to serve with harissa chicken?

The potatoes and onions are already in the tray, so all it needs is something cool and something green. A bowl of yoghurt loosened with lemon, and a salad of cucumber, herbs and thinly sliced red onion, will do it. If you want to stretch the tray across more people, couscous or warm flatbread soaks up the spiced fat, which is the best part and otherwise stays in the tin.

The paste, the preserved lemons and the molasses all sit together in the Belazu range, and shipping is free Australia-wide on orders over $100.