Serves 4

Ingredients
4 onions, finely sliced
100g (31/2oz) black olives, pitted and roughly chopped
5 fresh rosemary sprigs, chopped
4 garlic cloves, halved and any green inner shoot discarded
2 small dried red chilles, crushed
2 tablespoons olive oil plus a little extra
juice of 1 lemon
4 poussins or baby chickns, about 500g (1lb 2oz) each
salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method
Preheat the oven to 200°C (400°F/Gas 6).  Put the onion in a bowl.  Mix the olives and rosemary together and add to the onion.  Finely chop the garlic with the dried chilli.  Add to the onion mixture with the 2 tablespoons olive oil and the lemon juice.  Mix well and season with salt and pepper. Stuff each chicken with a generous amount of the stuffing.

Heat a little oil in a heavy ovenproof pan over a medium-high heat.  Season the outside of the chickens with salt and pepper.  Brown the chickens in the pan on both breasts and the back.  When browned, transfer the whole pan to the oven and roast for 30-35 minutes until the meat is tender, basting regularly with all the roasting juices.  (If cooking a larger chicken, allow a longer cooking time - usually 1 hour to 1 hour 20 minutes or so.) To check, insert the point of a small knife by the bone;  if the juices run clear, the chicken is cooked.

Serve the small roasted chickens with piping-hot home made chips or roast potatoes, or with a fresh salad with bitter and peppery leaves.

Note: To try to be more authentic (but without using a spit or rotisserie), place a tray of hand-cut chips splashed with a little olive oil and seasoned with salt and pepper at the bottom of the oven while you are cooking the chicken.  Put the chicken on a rack above the chips so that all the juices drip onto the potatoes.  Turn the potatoes regularly during cooking and pour any leftover juice from inside the chicken over the top just before serving.

From Street Food by Tom Kime
Dorling Kindersley

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