Roasted chicken with figs

Rosemary- and basil-scented chicken, roasted with figs at their peak of ripeness.
Next time you're planning a chicken dinner, think about adding figs to the roast. (Photo: Miriam Kresh/Unpacked)

Late summer’s fresh figs are at their peak. We eat them halved and drizzled with sweet cream for a luxurious breakfast – baked like apples, with a little honey spooned over them – poached in a light white wine syrup. Or just rinsed and eaten as they are. It’s an expensive fruit, and spoils quickly, too. I try to estimate how much my family will eat, and buy only that much. But this week I did over-buy. They were small purple figs, with a curiously tough skin, although their hearts were red and sweet. What to do with the figs? I decided to roast them together with chicken.

I reached into the fridge and pulled out a jar of rosemary-infused olive oil. Figs and rosemary like each other. Then I felt that something was needed to boost the sweetness of the fruit, which otherwise might go unnoticed in all the chickeny things. Silan, which is date syrup, is my choice for light sweetness. Lemon adds a bright note. Finally, I had a big handful of basil that needed to get used up. I was set.

Lacking silan, you may use one tablespoon of warmed, dark honey.

And rosemary oil is simple enough to make: Pour about 1/4 cup of olive oil into a small pan. Add 3 or 4 twigs of fresh or dried rosemary, and put the pan, covered, over the gentlest heat for about 20 minutes. Cool and strain the oil before storing it in a jar. It’s that simple. The rosemary-infused oil will keep 3 months in the fridge.

Roasted chicken with figs

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Prep20 minutes
Cook Time1 hour
Yield8

Ingredients

  • 1 whole, clean roasting chicken
  • ½ lemon
  • 2 large cloves of garlic, chopped fine
  • 2 tbsp olive oil infused with rosemary (or plain if you do not have)
  • 1 tbsp coarse salt
  • 1  small bunch of basil leaves, taken off the stems
  • 14 small figs (or 8 large ones), halved and their stems cut away
  • 2 tbsp silan (or 1 tablespoon warmed, dark honey)
  • Black pepper 3 or 4 grinds of fresh (or ⅛ tsp powdered)
  • A dash of Tamari soy sauce

Instructions

  • Squeeze the juice of the lemon over the chicken. Rub the lemon half all over the chicken. Tuck the spent lemon half into the cavity of the chicken. Cover the chicken and let it soak up the lemon while you’re preparing the next steps.
  • In a small bowl, combine 1 tablespoon of the olive oil with the garlic, coarse salt, black pepper and soy sauce.
  • Rub the oily mix well over the chicken. Sweep up any garlic pieces that may fall onto the roasting pan and scoot them under the chicken.
  • Stuff the basil leaves under the skin of the chicken, anywhere you can find or force room. When in doubt, just put any extra leaves inside the cavity of the chicken alongside the lemon half.
  • Pile the figs up next to the chicken. Dribble the remaining 1 tablespoon rosemary oil and the silan over them. It won’t hurt if some of the garlicky mixture for the chicken gets mixed up with the figs.
  • Tear off a strip of tin foil and fold it so that it covers the figs, but not the chicken. Let the tin foil lay lightly over the figs; don’t tuck it in around them. You don’t want the figs to cook away to nothing while the chicken roasts – the tin foil will protect them.
  • Roast at 350° F (190° C) until the chicken is an irresistible golden color and the house smells divine.
  • Serve with rice or couscous.

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