Turkish Chicken

This chicken is absolutely delicious and fairly easy to prepare. The couscous that is used with it can be used with many different dishes.

Here's what you'll need-

For the couscous-

3/4 cup of couscous

1 cup of chicken broth

1 Tbs of butter

6 dried apricots, diced

1/4 cup dried currants

Chopped fresh mint

For the Chicken

2 whole chicken legs (legs and thighs attached)

2 whole pears sliced in half

2 Tbs butter

Cinnamon

Honey

1 tsp zatar seasoning

Dried garlic 

Salt 

Pepper

Walnuts or pecans finely chopped

Asparagus 

Creme fraiche

Preheat oven to 375 degrees

Place chicken in cast iron skillet. Rub the skin with butter and place remainder of butter in pan. Lightly sprinkle chicken with salt, pepper, and garlic. Then coat with zatar seasoning, drizzle with honey and sprinkle with nuts. Place pears slice side up on a sheet pan and drizzle with honey and sprinkle with cinnamon. Place both the pears and chicken in the oven. I place a probe thermometer in the chicken and cook until 165 degrees. 

Meanwhile, blanch asparagus  for 3 minutes in boiling water and set aside. When the chicken is getting close to temp, bring the broth and butter to a boil. When boiling add couscous, apricots, and currants. Immediately remove from heat, stirr the ingridients, cover and let set for 5 minutes. Sauté the asparagus in butter with garlic salt and pepper. 

Plate the couscous and garnish with mint. Place chicken on top of couscous and pour the juices from the skillet over the chicken. Plate the asparagus and top with creme fraiche. Since the pears take a little longer than the chicken, you can plate everything else and then pull out the pears. When making this dish I would highly recommend not skipping out on the asparagus. Since the chicken, the couscous and the pears are sweet you really need a savory element and you can't beat asparagus and creme fraiche. I hop you enjoy this meal. I finished the meal with some baklava.