What a great way to celebrate the arrival of winter citrus and the season's holidays: tender roast chicken burnished with a sweet-hot rub of silan, or date syrup, and harissa, and perfumed with tangerines caramelised in the oven. If you don't like it hot, reduce the amount of harissa or substitute sweet smoked paprika. If you're making it for a crowd, use the same weight in chicken parts (thighs and drumsticks work best). Lightly brined olives, such as Sicilian Castelveltranos, marry well with the other flavours of the dish.

Method

● Preheat the oven to 200°C. Pat the chicken dry. Whisk together 4 tablespoons olive oil, the silan, harissa to taste, and 1 teaspoon salt. Peel shallots and cut into quarters if large or halves if small. Cut unpeeled tangerines into quarters or sixths and poke out visible seeds.

● Scatter shallots and tangerines in a large roasting pan and toss with a little olive oil and salt. Rub chicken inside and out with the harissa-silan mixture. Toss a few tangerine and shallot pieces into the cavity of the chicken. Place chicken, breast side up, in the pan and tie the legs together loosely with twine, if desired.