Marinated Spiced Chicken--

[AzIzAzIzA]

Honestly i dont know the name of this chicken, but i got it from the DubaiTV channel from Manal, the cook they have during Ramadan.  I made it-gave the recipe to my mom because she was having Iftar for like 30 people and need more than mansaf and she got rave reviews too... HERE GOES (i am giving exactly as it was on the show-which called for 2 chickens, you can tweek it for more or less)

2 chickens (whole)

1 cup chopped onions

1/2 cup raisins

1 t salt

1/2 t (each) black pepper, cumin, saffron, tumeric, cinnamon, coriander, paprika

1 can tomato paste (not the huge cans, the smaller ones)

4 cloves garlic

1 cup yogurt

butter/semnah/ghee for frying (whichever you have on hand)

Heat frying pan, add your semnah (or butter/ghee) melt, add the onions and cook, stirring, you dont want them to get brown and crispy, just starting to get translucent.  Add the raisins.  Cook until raisins start to plump.  Remove from stove and set aside,

Mix your spices all together.  In a mixer (blender-whatever you have) combine the garlic, tomato paste, yogurt, and 3/4 of your spice mix, Blend until well mixed and garlic is pretty worked in.  

Tske you chickens...stuff the insides with the onion.raisin mix (leave about a 1/4).  Cover the chickens with the marinade. 

Now she cooked them in those oven bags, the plastic things.  They dont sell those here (at least havent seen them) but a nice casserole dish with a lid will work just as well.  I put mine in the over at 180degrees C for almost 2 hours till the chiken fell off the bones.  My oven also is a bit finicky, and decides when to work well and when to chill (literally).  So best advice, however long it takes you to roast a chicken, do the same with this one.

Now with the extras.  She made rice on the side-and added the remaining spices to the mix, gave it a nice flavor. You will need to add more salt, because-it was like NO SALT AT ALL in mine.  When the water was low on the rice she added the remaining onions and raisins.

Inshallah ENJOY

[AzIzAzIzA]

Personally my husband is anti-raisins, which after almost 11 years of marriage I am just finding this out, but you can work with this recipe and add/subtract as you like.