Lemon Chicken With Couscous & Zucchini

By ltrodrigu

Ingredients

• 1 (approximately 3-pound) chicken, broken into parts
• Salt
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 2 lemons
• 1 3/4 cups water
• 1 (7-ounce) box couscous
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 8 garlic cloves
• 2 medium zucchinis cut into 1/2-inch cubes
• 2 1/2 tablespoons mint leaves, roughly chopped

Details

Servings 4
Adapted from wsj.com

Preparation

Step 1

Heat oven to 425 degrees. Pat chicken dry with paper towels and season generously with salt.

Set a large, ovenproof skillet over medium-high heat. Swirl in 3 tablespoons olive oil and, once hot, lay in chicken, skin-side down. Reduce heat to medium and cook, undisturbed, until skin is golden and crisp, about 7 minutes. Flip chicken and brown other side, about 5 minutes more. Grate zest of 1 lemon over chicken and transfer pan to oven. Roast chicken until just cooked through, about 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, pour 1¾ cups water into a medium pot and add a generous pinch of salt. Set pot over high heat and bring water to a boil. Pour in couscous, stir, and bring water back to a boil. Cover pot, add butter and remove from heat. Let couscous stand until grains are just tender, about 2 minutes. Uncover and toss with a fork until grains are loose and fluffy. Season to taste with salt.

Add remaining oil and garlic cloves to a medium sauté pan. Set pan over medium heat and gently fry garlic until golden on both sides, about 4 minutes total. Remove cloves, leaving oil in pan, and set garlic aside.

Raise heat under pan to medium-high. Once hot, add diced zucchini and cook until tender and browned all over, 6 minutes total.

While zucchini cooks, finely chop fried garlic cloves. Juice and zest remaining lemon. Add minced garlic and lemon juice to pan. Sauté zucchini 30 seconds more and season with salt. Remove pan from heat and stir in mint.

To serve, mound couscous onto a platter and top with chicken pieces. Garnish with reserved lemon zest and scatter zucchini around platter.