This is what I make just about every other time I have friends over in summer, and regularly during the rest of the year too for that matter. It’s simple: the chicken deeply spiced with za’atar, that wonderful Middle-Eastern spice blend comprising thyme, sesame seeds and ground sumac, itself a glorious blood-red berry with an intensely astringent lemony tang; the salad a fresh tangle of mint, parsley, cucumber, tomato and spring onions, crumbled with torn shards of toasted pitta and sprinkled, again, with sumac. To be entirely proper, you should throw in some leafy, herbal purslane, too, but unless you happen to live near a Middle-Eastern shop, it’s unlikely you’ll be able to get your hands on any, so I haven’t listed it below.
If you want to turn this into a real feast, then by all means supplement this oven-bronzed chicken in its nubbly, amber spices with the za’atar-marinated lamb kebabs. Know, too, that the za’atar itself is not the recondite ingredient it once would have been; my local supermarket stocks it, and the sumac, regularly, or you can order it from www.seasonedpioneers.co.uk, 0800 0682 348. I’m giving the recipe for the fattoush here simply because I’ve got in the habit of making these together, but this sour, refreshing Middle-Eastern bread salad has every right to an independent life of its own.
for the chicken:
125ml olive oil (not extra virgin)
1 chicken (approx. 2–2.25kg), cut into 8 pieces
2 tablespoons za’atar
Maldon salt
for the fattoush:
2 pitta breads
3 fat spring onions, halved and sliced
1 cucumber, peeled, quartered lengthwise and chopped
3 tomatoes, diced
bunch fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped
bunch fresh mint, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
6–8 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
juice of 1 lemon
Maldon salt
half a teaspoon sumac
Pour the 125ml oil into a large roasting tin, big enough to fit all the chicken portions in a single layer, and then put in these very chicken portions, rubbing them about in the oil to give them a glossy coating. Sprinkle over the za’atar, and then work into the oily skin of the chicken so that each piece is well covered with the bosky, bark-coloured spices. Leave the meat to marinate for a couple of hours at room temperature. Or you can do all the marinating in my usual plastic-bag way (see the next recipe); which is certainly easier if you plan to marinate these much in advance – a day or two would be fine – and therefore need to stash them in the fridge.
Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 220°C/gas mark 8 and, when the chicken’s had its aromatic steeping time, transfer the tin, making sure all the chicken pieces are skin side up, to the oven. If you’ve marinated the chicken in a freezer-bag, just tumble them out, pushing them skin side up, into a roasting tin, making absolutely sure you’ve squeezed over every last drop of the oily spice mixture they’ve been sitting in.
Roast the chicken portions for about 45 minutes, by which time they should be well cooked, which is how we want them here, and their spice-sprinkled skin burnished and crisp and baked to a fabulous burnt umber. Pile the pieces up, or arrange them as you like on a large flat plate and sprinkle over a little Maldon salt.
When the chicken’s nearly cooked, you can get on with the fattoush. So, cut the pitta breads open lengthways so that you have four very thin halves, and lay them on a baking sheet. Toast them in the oven with the chicken for about 5 minutes to give them a bit of crunch then take them out and leave them somewhere to cool.
In a bowl, combine the spring onions, cucumber, tomatoes, parsley and mint and mince in the garlic. With a pair of kitchen scissors, cut the pitta into pieces over the bowl of salad – I tend to snip them into rough triangles – and drop them in, leaving a few back for the top. Toss the salad then dress it with the oil and lemon juice, tossing it again. Add some Maldon salt, and have a quick taste to see if the ratio of oil and lemon is right, adding more of either if necessary. Sprinkle over the reserved toasted pitta triangles and the lovely dark red, deeply bitter sumac, and serve the fattoush right alongside the za’atar chicken.
Serves 6.