Sweet Potatoes!

Tonight, I made a down-home, rustic dish from Jamie's Kitchen, by Jamie Oliver. I thought it was only fitting to make something from a notably British chef on the day that the Royal Family welcomes their newest Princess! This dish is a roasted chicken, stuffed with fragrant couscous and cooked on a sweet potato stovie.

There's a lot of moving parts in this one, and they all come together to cook for an hour and a half...so once you put everything in the oven, you are free to do what you please while it cooks. It's a very hands-on/very hands-off process, is what it is! :)

For my mise en place, I gathered some tri-colored couscous (because I think it's prettier than regular), the zest and juice of one orange and one lemon (reserving on lemon half after juicing), some mixed dried fruit, some mixed nuts, chopped mint and parsley, olive oil, potatoes, sweet potatoes, fennel seeds, coriander seeds, ground cinnamon, cumin seeds, cardamom pods, black peppercorns, sea salt, creme fraiche, and of course, a roasting chicken.

Once your mise en place is in place, I promise that things pick up speed...so let's take it away!

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Mix the couscous, zest and juices of both orange and lemon, the dried fruits, mixed nuts and fresh herbs in a bowl and add a few good glugs of olive oil, as well as some warm water, and stir everything together until blended.

Grate the potatoes (both regular and sweet) into another bowl. I found that using the grating disc on my food processor was MUCH quicker than grating by hand!

In a mortar and pestle, mix all the spices together into a fine powder.

Alright, now it's time to get cookin'!

Stuff the chicken with the fragrant couscous and really pack it in there. Once you've gotten as much as you can in there, cap it with that reserved lemon half.

Once the chicken is stuffed, rub some olive oil over the whole chicken and use half of the spice mixture to rub the skin all over.

Using a large casserole dish, or roasting pan, spread your grated potatoes across the bottom and really pack them in there. You want to make a sort of potato cake in the pan. Once all of the potatoes have been pressed down in there, like a little bed for our chicken, place it on top and put it in the oven. After a half an hour has passed, turn the temperature down to 325 degrees and cook for another hour.

The whole house smelled so fragrant while this dish was cooking, just mouth-watering! Once the hour and a half was up, I pulled the pan out of the oven and allowed the chicken to rest for about 5 minutes before serving.

Once the resting was done, I carved the chicken and cut squares of potato "stovie" and plated with some of the stuffed couscous on the side. Topped with a bit of creme fraiche, as well as some sprinkled parsley, this dish was so home-y and heartwarming! And now, to watch the wedding!