Spatchcock chicken Ras al Hanut on a veggie tray

Christmas Eve is the time to enjoy with the family or friends. This year I have to enjoy it alone.

Doing a lot of dinner preparations on this day was not my thing to do. I made the dessert for the holidays and used the baking tray and the oven to prepare dinner. No pots or pans to clean.

I bought a free range chicken with a lot of meat on the bones. I wanted to use all of it during the holidays. With strong poultry sissors I cut out the back bone. It took some strenght and a little curse to get it out. Then I pressed it down to make it flat and rubbed it in salt and Ras al Hanut seasoning.

The baking tray was prepped with baking paper and a lot of different veggies, lemon and olives and hearty herbs from my balcony. A bit of coarse salt and olive oil was all that was needed.

The chicken on top took only 45 min at 180 C fan. It was very juicy and perfectly cooked. 

The whole bird without the spatchcock technique would have take  1:15 min to cook. The breast meat tends to get dry this way.

Ingredients:

1,85 kg free range chicken with gizzard and innards

1 sweet potoato, 4 medium potatoes, 1 red onion, 1 shallot, 5 cloves of garlic

1 large carrot, white of a leek, 1 red bell pepper, 1 medium courgette, 60 g green olives, 

1 lemon quartered, rosemary, thyme, sage, majoram

Use strong kitchen or poultry sissors and cut out the back bone. Take out the gizzard and put both into a freezer bag for an other day to make a stock. Discard the innards or fry them with onions on toast.

Clean the bird and pat it dry. Rub salt and Ras al Hanut all over and place it on the veggies.