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Djaj Bil Zaatar Wil Batata – Chicken With Thyme Recipe

Yields1 ServingPrep Time20 minsCook Time2 hrsTotal Time2 hrs 20 mins

THE BEST chicken with garlic! Every time, a dinner of tender chicken breasts in a delectable garlic cream sauce with caramelized onions and fragrant thyme is a hit!

 ¼ Chicken (whole)
 ¾ Potatoes
 ½ Onions
 ¼ Lemon
 10 ½ Garlic cloves
 ¼ tsp Salt
 ½ cup Thyme (dried, 'Zaatar' in Arabic)
 1 Bay leaves (dried)
 1 cup Water
FOR THE MARINADE
 ¼ tsp Ginger (grated)
  tsp Paprika (powder)
  tsp Arabic mixed spice (or All Spice)
  tsp Salt
  tsp Black pepper
 5 ½ tbsp Olive oil
 ¼ tsp White vinegar
 2 ¾ tbsp Lemon juice
1

Mix all the ingredients together for the marinade.

2

Put the chicken in a deep dish, or a bowl, and thoroughly run the spice mixture all over the chicken, including under the skin and inside the cavity. Pour any remaining marinade on top of the chicken and in the dish. Cover with plastic wrap and leave in the fridge to marinate for 3 hours.

3

In a bowl, gently mix together the crushed garlic and dried thyme. Careful not to crush the thyme too much.

4

Start preheating the oven to 220C. The setting should be on broil so the heat comes from the top of the oven. Slice the potatoes, put them in a bowl, and rub them with the zaatar mixture – use only about ¼ of the mixture as you’ll need the rest for the chicken.

5

Put the sliced onions in the middle of an oven safe dish. Remove the chicken from the fridge and marinate it with the remaining zaatar mix – similar to how you marinated the chicken with the sauce in step 2, making sure the mixture gets all over the chicken, including under the skin and in the cavity. Then place the marinated chicken on top of the onions and put 1 bay leaf and half a lemon in the cavity. Note: Don’t throw away the leftover sauce from when you marinated the chicken in the fridge, you’ll need it in the next step.

6

Arrange the marinated potato slices around the chicken and put the remaining bay leaves between some of the slices. Pour the remaining sauce (from the step above) over the chicken and potatoes and put the lemon slices on top of the chicken.

7

Dissolve the salt in the water (at room temperature) and carefully pour it into the dish. Now put the dish into the oven, still on broil, for 30 minutes or until the skin of the chicken starts turning brown. Remove the chicken and change the oven setting from broil to normal, but still at 220C. Now cover the dish with aluminum and put it back in the oven to cook until done (around 45-60 minutes).