Chicken with Dates, Olives & Lemon
Burnished thighs with sticky dates, bright green olives, and roasted lemon wedges on one tray looks like the cover of a cookbook you would never actually open. It is chicken with five things scattered over it, and the oven does all of the cooking while you are in the shower.
- Cost for two
- $26
- Active time
- 25 min
- Done ahead
- 66%
- 1 hr 45 min before 7:30
- Hands off at
- 7:15
- T-15
Allergens: Wheat (couscous)·Serves: 2 (with lunch leftovers)·Oven: 400°F
Gear: One sheet tray, foil, one mixing bowl, a plate to use as a lid, a phone timer. A probe thermometer ($12) is strongly recommended for chicken. A kettle for the couscous water is nice; a microwave and a mug work the same.
Start at 5:30. Hands off from 7:15. Stove mode follows the clock while you cook.
The 7:30 Timeline
Read it bottom-up if you like; cook it top-down.
Done before she arrives
Aisle order
Shopping list
Produce
Lemons
2
Red onion
1
Garlic
you use 6 cloves
1 head
Pitted dates
Medjool if they have them, about 8 oz — you use 10
1 box
Meat & Seafood
Bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs
about 2 lb total
4
Pantry & Canned
Pitted green olives
Castelvetrano if you see them; any pitted green olive works — you use 1 cup, drained
1 jar
Dried oregano
1 jar
Plain couscous
the 5-minute kind, 10 oz — you use 1 cup
1 box
Pantry (you probably have these)
Salt, pepper, olive oil
At the stove
Method
- 1
Line the sheet tray with foil, shiny side down. Do this first so the tray is ready when your hands are oily.
- 2
Peel the red onion, cut it in half through the root, then cut each half into 4 wedges. Put them in the mixing bowl.
- 3
Count out 10 dates. Give each one a squeeze; if you feel something hard, split the date with your thumbs and pull the pit out. Into the bowl.
- 4
Drain 1 cup of olives in your hand over the sink and add them to the bowl.
- 5
Lay 6 garlic cloves on the board, press the flat side of a knife down on each until it cracks, and pull the papery skin off. Into the bowl.
- 6
Cut one lemon into 6 wedges. Into the bowl, peel and all — the peel goes soft and sweet in the oven.
- 7
Pour 2 tablespoons olive oil over the bowl, then 1 teaspoon salt and 1 tablespoon dried oregano. Toss everything with your hands until it glistens.
- 8
Tip the bowl onto the foil-lined tray and spread it out into one layer.
- 9
Pat the chicken thighs dry with paper towels, both sides. Dry skin browns; wet skin steams and stays pale.
- 10
Rub the thighs with 1 tablespoon oil, 1 teaspoon salt, 1 tablespoon oregano, and a good amount of pepper. Use your hands; then wash your hands with soap.
- 11
Set the thighs on top of the tray skin-side up, with space between them. Do not let them touch.
- 12
Push the dates under the edges of the thighs so the chicken shades them. Exposed dates burn; sheltered dates turn to caramel.
- 13
Cover the tray loosely with plastic wrap and put it in the fridge until 7:00.
- 14
Couscous at 6:30: put 1 cup couscous in the washed mixing bowl with a pinch of salt and a glug of oil. Pour 1 cup boiling water over it. Put a plate on top and set a 5-minute timer.
- 15
Lift the plate and fluff the couscous with a fork until no clumps remain. Squeeze half the second lemon over it and put the plate back on.
- 16
At 7:00, turn the oven to 400°F and take the tray out of the fridge. Peel off the plastic.
- 17
At 7:15, slide the tray onto the middle rack and set a 50-minute timer.
- 18
At the timer, pull the tray. Check doneness (below). Let it rest on the stovetop for 5 minutes; the juices settle and the skin stays crisp.
- 19
Spoon the juices from the tray over the couscous when you plate. That is the sauce; there is no other sauce.
Is it done?
The check that needs no experience
Thermometer: slide the probe into the thickest part of the biggest thigh, next to the bone but not touching it. 165°F. Under that, 8 more minutes and check again. No thermometer: cut into the thickest thigh next to the bone with a knife. The meat should be white or beige all the way to the bone, the juices should run clear (not pink), and the meat should pull away from the bone without a fight. Any pink at the bone means 8 more minutes.
The #1 way to screw it up
The chicken skin comes out pale and soft instead of brown and crisp — the thighs were wet when they went on, or they were touching, or the oven was not fully hot at 7:15.
Recovery
Confirm the chicken reads 165°F first. Then move the oven rack to the top slot, turn on the broiler, and put the tray back for 3 to 4 minutes. Stand at the oven with the door cracked and watch; pull the tray the moment the skin spots brown. Say "one more minute" to the room; it is true. If you would rather not broil, the thighs are cooked and delicious either way — spoon extra juices over and nobody has ever sent back a pale thigh.
- A few dates went black
- pick them off with a fork and drop them in the trash. The rest of the tray is untouched.
- Thighs read 155°F at 8:05
- back in for 8 minutes with the oven still at 400°F. Serve at 8:15; she is on her first drink.
The reveal
Plating
Spoon a wide bed of couscous across the center of each plate and drizzle a spoonful of the tray juices over it. Set two thighs on top, skin-side up and overlapping slightly, then tuck dates, olives, onion, and two roasted lemon wedges around them so the colors are all touching the chicken. Finish with a fresh lemon wedge on the rim and a crack of pepper over the skin, and nothing else.
Vegetarian swap
Two large sweet potatoes cut into thick wedges (no peeling) and one 15-oz can of chickpeas, drained and patted dry, tossed with the same onion, dates, olives, garlic, lemon, oregano, and oil. Same foil tray, same 400°F oven, 40 minutes instead of 50, in at 7:25. The sweet potato goes soft and burnished; the chickpeas go crunchy at the edges; the couscous and the plate are identical.
What to pour
- Wine
- a fruity, soft red served slightly cool — Bogle Old Vine Zinfandel, about $11, at Safeway. Sweet dates and salty olives want fruit, not oak.
- Beer
- Blue Moon or another wheat beer with an orange slice.
- No alcohol
- San Pellegrino Limonata over ice with a squeeze of the leftover lemon.
Take this to the supermarket.
The First Bulletproof Dinner as a PDF, with the timelines. Free.