Yvonne Maffei’s Roast Chicken With Couscous, Dates and Buttered Almonds Recipe (2024)

The recipe looked so interesting i tried it right away. Once again, I am left thinking, does anyone try these recipes before they publish them? The cous cous absorbs the chicken broth (fat), the top of the chicken is not brown (per the recipe) so when you turn it over to serve you have a chicken top with soggy white skin. The flavors were Ok, but not really interesting. There are many more interesting recipes. Come on NY Times, do a little research on the stuff you print.

I substituted boneless, skinless chicken thighs, and raisins for the dates, cooking it first in the oven for 20 minutes and then with the couscous for 15 minutes. This dish was delicious and easy. I think next time I will add stock to the couscous instead of water for a bit more flavor as I chose not to use butter or sugar.

Yes. In addition to the olive oil and butter, the couscous soaks up all of the chicken fat (which is why it is so delicious). I just roast the chicken with S&P on a rack. Toast almonds in 2T. butter, then drain on paper towels. Only add 1 T. olive oil to the couscous, then right before serving add 1 T. of the chicken fat. Not quite as delicious, but cuts the calories almost in half.

The picture of the dish shows the breast side up;there's no way the breast would be that golden brown cooking with the skin side down. All the liquid from the couscous would have made the skin rubbery at some point, so apparently the original cook or the person who made this for the picture flipped the chicken at some point. Did any of you who made the dish get your breasts to be that golden brown?

Intrigued by flavor profile - concerned with saturated fat. Eliminated all butter in favor of olive oil. Roasted chicken separately in clay pot. When done, set it to rest and collected juices (discarding fat in separator). Added chicken stock to juices to equal 2 and 1/4 cups total. Browned (Israeli) couscous (no soaking) with dates and almonds and a big pinch of saffron. Added liquid mixture and cooked couscous conventionally for 10 minutes. Combined elements. Delicious!

Delish and versatile. Made it w/ quinoa, which is slightly healthier and more nutritious. I stirred 1c rinsed quinoa around in the grease at the base of the partially-roasted chicken, then poured 2c scalding hot chicken broth over it, then folded in the buttered almonds, dates, grated orange peel, cinnamon, salt, etc. Then lidded the whole kit and caboodle and put it back into the oven. The dates add plenty of sweetness, you don’t need the honey or sugar. Garnish w/ mint, cilantro, scallions.

Delicious, but very rich! Substituted bulghar for couscous, using similar technique. Next time will eliminate butter...dry toast almonds and add slivered dates directly to bulghar..no need for additional fat. Turned chicken over and broiled to crisp breast skin. Would turn chicken breast-side up when adding couscous/bulghar for final minutes of cooking.

Love this recipe, but after reading comments about soggy skin I made following changes: 1) Use bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs; 2) Marinate the thighs in salt, pepper, ginger, lemon zest/juice, and a few glugs of olive oil for a few hours; 3) Brown the thighs in olive oil for about 15 minutes before adding couscous, almonds, and dates (then into the oven).I like to serve with this stir-fried kale from Ottolenghi https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2018/feb/17/yotam-ottolenghi-ka...

I made this the other night and boy was it good! I subbed 2 c. of chicken broth from the freezer and grated zest of an orange for the orange blossom water, plus went closer to an hour in the covered dish cooking part. The chicken was moist and falling apart good, and the couscous gets nice and crusty around the edges. Just a really nice, flavorful (and comforting) dish.

To clarify: 2 c. of chicken broth for the 2 c. of water; orange zest for the orange blossom water...

Amazing! Its the first recipe I try from NYT cooking, and my wife loved it. I followed the recipe as is but now that I read some of the comments below, it makes me want to do it again with some variations. Definitely, though the star of the dish is the couscous with dates and almonds.By the way, I don't cook much (to my wife's dismay), but this was really easy and turned out great.

This recipe is a knockout. I did not use sugar or honey, do not think they are needed. I used quinoa and made it with chicken broth, so yummy. This is so full of flavor and it is so easy to make. Your family will thank you and you will make it many times over. Love it

As usual when I make a new recipe, I followed this exactly. It was very easy. I had my doubts about the couscous, but it cooked up as expected. You soak it in water and do not drain it when you add the rest of the ingredients. As a result of the added water and cooking the chicken breast-side down, the chicken breast was very moist. On the other hand, the chicken didn't brown the way it's shown in this photo, but it tasted great. Our guests adored it.

I added some warm spices (clove, cardamon, hint of allspice) and crushed red pepper for some heat. Instead of water, I soaked the couscous in chicken stock and added a little bit more before distributing around the chicken. Using thighs cuts the time in half for this recipe.

We followed the recipe but did not add sugar, doubled the salt and ginger, and roasted it breast side up. Did not have orange blossom water so added a little orange zest. Took the lid off and gave it another 10 minutes. Delicious!

It’s rare for me to post on this site, but I use it frequently and often read the suggestions. I found this one very difficult to follow. My chicken stuck to the bottom of my Le Crueset Dutch oven. The couscous mixture was mush and very very sweet. It was moist, but so not worth the effort

I followed this recipe exactly as written and the chicken came out looking bald and steamed. Note to self: read the comment section first before attempting the recipe.

Isn't the chicken breast side up in the picture?

Question- do I drain the couscous before adding to the chicken?

I prepared this lackluster dish. It was dry overall, and the taste lacked complexity; the chicken, after 50 minutes baking by itself before 30 more minutes with the couscous, almonds, and dates added, tasted warmed over.

No flavor.

In reading other comments, noted that many stated that their chicken was not browned like picture.I solved this by placing under broiler for about 5 minutes at the end-beautifully browned and crispy top.Used Bulger instead of couscous, and also added some chopped appricots to Bulger mix.Cooked chicken skin down, 30 min. Then removed chicken and drained some fat away. Added couscous with chicken-skin side up, then basted honey on top. Cooked another 10 minutes, then broiler for 5.Delish!

This arrived in my inbox this morning and I made this evening. I roasted the bird for half the time breast down, half up, and ended up taking it out to broil at the end for colour. I added orange zest instead of orange water and used ginger paste (about 1tbsp) because of what I had on hand. I also added sauteed onions. Someone mentioned serving on a bed of spinach with lemon juice and I did that as well (too lazy to make a salad tonight). A nice change was our usual lineup!

Made the couscous only. Used Israeli style with chicken stock. Good. Maybe chop dates rather than just slice.

The recipe says, twice, to leave the bird breast side down, but the glorious picture of the finished bird, complete with golden skin, is decidedly breast UP. What gives? (I'm guessing it's photographed this way because, well, it just looks better.)I've not yet cooked this dish - looks and sounds delish - but when I do, I plan to turn the bird breast up before the final step in order to achieve that pinnacle of yum: roast chicken skin!

Would substituting the cous cous for brown rice work? If so, would I need to cook the brown rice first partially?

Perhaps try with a roasted chicken from Costco…

I'd be inclined to add some ras el hanout to this recipe...

Recipe calls for chicken to be roasted breast side down. Photo of finished dish shows chicken right side UP. I did it up and it came out great. Who wants to look at the back of a chicken?