Health & Fitness
Chermola Roasted Chicken
I miss the sun and the bright colors that people wear in the summer and I wanted my chicken to taste like the colors I miss. A culinary trip to Morocco is the perfect solution.
Sometimes when I go grocery shopping, I am on automatic pilot buying all the same things that I did the week before to prepare a menu that is like reciting times tables.
One of my go-to recipes is the timeless roasted chicken. As I was unpacking my bags and putting away the food recently, I knew that I wanted to roast a chicken, but not in the same way.
I miss the sun and the bright colors that people wear in the summer and I wanted my chicken to taste like the colors I missed.
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A culinary trip to Morocco with fresh herbs and spices was my perfect solution.
Through the food and transported by my imagination to Marrakech I found the evocative essence that spoke of exotic offerings.
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There is a fragrant mixture called chermola that is usually used to season meat prepared in a tajine—a clay pot consisting of a base and a conical or dome-shape cover.
The shape of the cover returns the condensation to the base. As the meat cooks, the seasoning dissolves in the evaporating liquids and marries in the long cooking process.
I don’t have a tajine, but I thought that I might still be able to create a tasty chicken by coating the chicken with this spice and herb blend and I was right. The result was an outstanding bird chock full of delicious flavor.
Chermola Roasted Chicken
Chermola
1 large onion, finely chopped
2 large garlic cloves minced
½ teaspoon ground cumin
¼ teaspoon ground sweet paprika
½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon of chili paste (sambal oelek)
6 tablespoons of finely chopped fresh coriander
6 tablespoons of finely chopped fresh flat leaf parsley
6 tablespoons of olive oil
Juice of ½ lemon
Salt
1 whole chicken
Preheat the oven to 350˚F. Combine the first 11 ingredients in a small bowl, split the chicken by breaking the back bone and cutting along the spine with a pair of kitchen shears. Lay it down skin side up in a roasting pan and coat the chicken with the chermola. Cover with foil. Roast the bird until it is done, about 1 hour and 15 min. In the last 15 minutes, remove the foil so that the chicken can brown. The thickest part of the chicken should register 165˚F on an instant-read thermometer.
