I first wrote this piece for my friend Danielle Michaan’s blog called Coco et Sel.

I returned home from an extended trip recently to find that I needed to take a homecooked meal to a relative just two days later. The onslaught of things to do after a long trip often overwhelms me, so this time I decided to prepare dishes for the meal that I could “chunk” into small bits of time, much of it in advance. 

For the entrée, I settled on a Lemony Cast-iron Harissa Roast Chicken. Harissa, a North African blend of chiles, garlic, spices, and olive oil, is one of my favorite versatile seasonings. 

While I have and will continue to make my own harissa blends, I also am happy to keep in the refrigerator a stellar one from the store SOS Chefs in New York City. The owner, who hails from Tunisia, boasts that her house-made blend (called the Harissa Maison), one that includes caraway and cumin in the spice combo, is arguably the finest this side of the Atlantic. As she puts it, “Harissa is in my blood.” After tasting how good hers is, I’m not going to be one to argue.

A key hack for crispy roast chicken is to salt the chicken generously in advance to give the salt time to seep into the meat by osmosis and dry out the skin. Of course, when there just isn’t time for that, salting an hour in advance will still result in a savory dish. (Try Celtic Sea Salt)

A quality bird is key here, too. I recommend purchasing a pasture-raised chicken, if possible. Pastured birds are roaming around in the sun and pecking in the grass, and their flavor and nutritional profiles are accordingly vastly superior to those of other types of birds. 

In this latest meal, I appreciated that I could get the entrée started the day before, leaving me with little else to do but slather the skin with harissa before just letting the oven do the work. The chicken made a truly delicious guest-worthy main course, and the leftover breast meat went into a remarkable salad for lunch the following day. 

Serves 4 to 6

• 1 (3 ½- to 4-pound) chicken

• 2 teaspoons salt

• 2-4 tablespoons harissa paste

• Extra virgin olive oil

• 1 lemon, halved

• Get the chicken ready: Place the chicken on a cutting board, breast-side up and legs pointing towards you. 
• With a sharp knife, cut a 3” long incision into the loose skin between the leg and breast on both sides. Season the chicken generously with salt, getting into every crevice. Transfer the chicken to a bowl and refrigerate uncovered overnight, or up to 2 days. (If you are pressed for time, you can salt the chicken one hour before baking and leave at room temperature.) Otherwise, take the chicken out of the refrigerator 1 hour before roasting.  
• Preheat the oven to 400˚F. 
• Slather the chicken with the harissa, getting into every nook and cranny. 
• Place the two lemon halves, cut-side down, in a 10- to 12-inch cast iron skillet. Nestle the chicken, breast-side up, in the skillet. (The lemons could be underneath or on the side.) Drizzle the top of the chicken with olive oil so that the exposed surface is shiny. 
• Roast in the center of the oven, 45 to 60 minutes. 
• Start testing at 45 minutes. First look and see if the chicken looks crispy and browned. Test by piercing the meat in the leg joint and seeing if the juices run clear. Better yet, if you have a meat thermometer, insert it into the thigh. Your chicken is done when the thigh registers 165˚F. 
• Return to the oven and test every 5 minutes or so if the bird is not finished. If you have an even larger bird (such as a 5 pounder), you may even need up to an additional 15 minutes to roast it to the proper temperature. 
• Let rest for 10-15 minutes before carving to make sure the juices don’t run out of the bird. Squeeze the roasted lemon halves over the chicken. Carve, and serve hot.