Roasted chicken with a twist! This roasted chicken is marinated in a sweet sun dried tomato and red pepper marinade. Sitting on a bed of juicy green lentils that soak up all the chicken juices.

Roast chicken

Roasting a whole chicken is sometimes a daunting thought. But when chicken can be this delicious why be nervous?

It is so rewarding to see a big beautiful roast chicken on your dinner table that you cooked all by yourself! Not to mention it being deliciously juicy and not a tad bit dry throughout!

Seriously do not be nervous.

Lentils

Lentils are one of my favourite things to cook recently. Mainly because it is so versatile and easy to cook. I love using orange lentils for recipes like soups, curries and stews. And I love to use green lentils for things like adding on top of a warm salad, adding into bulgar wheat as a rice alternative dish. I also love curried lentils. Which is where I got the idea for this roast chicken and lentil dish.

I though the chicken roasting away in the oven sitting underneath a bed of green lentils had to be a great idea!

I tried it and it was really good. So I thought this would be a great recipe for Ramadan. A beautiful roast chicken on the dinner table with juicy lentils has to impress family members.

Marinade

With the dish all I did was add the cooked green lentils into a tray with a whole chicken. I seasoned the chicken and lentils and drenched them with the sun dried tomato and pepper marinade. I let it sit in the fridge for a few hours for maximum affect.

I roasted the chicken and lentils and magic happened! Squeezed lemon juice on the chicken when straight out of the oven and I ended up with super tender chicken and juicy lentils. A lemon juice squeeze on piping hot chicken is essential in my book, it seriously makes all the difference!

I really hope you enjoy this recipe as much as me and my family did.

Grab the recipe below.

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Sun-dried tomato and pepper lentil roast chicken

Ingredients

The chicken

• 1 whole chicken
• 2 lemons
• 2 tablespoons cumin
• 2 tablespoons ground coriander ( I like to use roast my own coriander seeds until golden and fragent then blend in a coffee grinder. It's a life changing smell and nothing like the shop bought stuff!)
• 2 tablespoon sea salt (Or to your liking)
• Generous drizzle olive oil
• 2 cups cooked green lentils
• 1/2 cup water

For the marinade

• 1/2 cup sun dried tomatoes (Without the oil.)
• 1 whole roasted red pepper (Either freshly roasted or from a jar.)
• 4 garlic cloves
• 1 handful coriander
• dash of water to help blend

Instructions

1. Add the chicken in a large baking tray with enough space to add the lentils around it.

2. Pour the lentils around the sides of the chicken.

3. Season the chicken with the sea salt, ground coriander and cumin.

4. In a blender add in all the marinade ingredients and blend untill fully combined.

5. Pour the marinade on top if the chicken and rub until fully marinated. Mix in the lentils too they get some of the action!

6. Run in the olive oil and let it rest and marinate in the fridge for around 4/5 hours. The longer the better of course! If you are in a rush then you just just let it sit for atleast an hour.

7. Add 1/2 cup if water around the lentils to help keep them moist and juicy while cooking with the chicken.

8. Roast for 1 hour and 30 mins untill all the juices run clear when poked with a skewer. I like to keep checking in the chicken to make sure the top doesn't burn. If the top starts to brown too fast then add some scrunched up partchment paper on top to preven this. (Srcunching the paper helps it stay in place.)

9. Sereve with your favourite sides, we like to have this meal with roasted potatoes and sauted spinach. Enjoy!