Roasted Chicken with Dates and Capers
and couscous / roasted green beans
The marinade for this roasted chicken doubles as a cooking liquid that flavors the dish with white wine, citrus, dates and briny capers. Roast the chicken with green beans and serve it over leftover couscous from Monday.
Ingredients
- Stock, any type - 3/4 cup (sub water)
- Salt - 1/2 tsp
- Butter - 2 Tbsp
- Couscous - 3/4 cup
- Dates, dried - 6, chopped (look for pitted dates)
- Garlic - 2 cloves, chopped
- Lemons - 1/2, wedges
- Capers - 1/4 cup, drained and rinsed
- Olives, any color, pitted (opt) - 1/2 cup, drained and rinsed
- Wine, white - 1/2 cup (sub any type stock)
- Oil, olive - 3 Tbsp
- Vinegar, red wine - 3 Tbsp
- Brown sugar - 2 tsp
- Mustard, Dijon - 3 tsp
- Thyme, fresh - 4 sprigs
- Chicken thighs, boneless and skinless - 4 (sub boneless skinless chicken breasts)
- Green beans - 1 lb, trimmed (sub frozen green beans)
Nutrition Facts
Prep
- Dates / Garlic / Lemons - Prep as directed. Combine dates and garlic in one container. Store Lemon wedges separately. (Can be done up to 5 days ahead).
- Marinate chicken - Drain and rinse capers and olives (if using). Combine capers, olives, dates, garlic, white wine, olive oil, vinegar, brown sugar, mustard and thyme sprigs in a container with a lid or Ziploc bag. Squeeze lemon juice into the marinade and then add the peels (the peels will continue to release citrus flavor). Add chicken (if using chicken breasts instead of thighs, first slice the breasts in half to thin them) and combine with marinade. Marinate for at least 30 minutes and up to 2 days. (Can be done up to 2 days ahead)
- Cook couscous - (Skip if couscous was already made ahead on Monday.) If prepping right before cooking, get chicken and vegetables in the oven before making couscous. Combine stock, salt and butter in a saucepan. Cover and bring to boil. Remove from heat. Stir in couscous and cover with lid. Let stand for ~5 minutes before fluffing with a fork. (Can be done up to 5 days ahead)
- Green beans - Trim green beans. (Can be done up to 5 days ahead)
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Make
- Heat oven to 450F / 232C. Spray a baking dish with nonstick cooking spray or brush with some oil.
- Place green beans in baking dish. Drizzle with some oil and season with some salt and pepper. Roast green beans until they are starting to turn tender, 10 to 12 minutes. (Note: If using frozen green beans, you can skip this initial roasting step. No need to defrost the beans, just place them directly in the baking dish and skip to the next step.)
- Arrange chicken in a single layer on top of green beans. Pour marinade over chicken and vegetables. Discard lemon peels (they can turn bitter while cooking.) Season the tops of the chicken pieces with some salt and pepper.
- Transfer baking dish to oven and roast until chicken reaches 165F (74C) degrees, 15 to 25 minutes for chicken thighs (20 to 30 minutes for chicken breasts).
- If couscous was made ahead, reheat it in the microwave.
- Serve chicken and green beans over couscous. Enjoy!
Nutrition Facts
Reviews
Ratings
54 reviews
This is my favorite recipe so far. My husband doesn't like olives - I took a risk - and he enjoyed it and said he would love to have it again. I used broth instead of wine and subbed kale for the green beans and it was very good. I will probably do it exactly the same way next time.
0 HelpfulPlaced it on a foil-covered big baking pan and where the marinade ran, it burned and started smoking in the oven! So I transferred the whole thing to a smaller bakeware, seemed to work better
0 HelpfulI used figs instead of dates--but this was really really good! We enjoyed the flavors in this a lot between the sweet and the salty.
0 HelpfulI can't believe I'm favoriting this JUST for the green beans. They were so simple but my family gobbled them up. I paired them with another dish.
0 Helpfuleasy. took longer than expected as we used breasts so made the beans soggy. toddler liked so will try again probably.
0 Helpful