Roasted, Fruit-Stuffed Chicken for Tu B'Shvat

I once attended a hilarious, convivial Tu B’Shavat Seder in Tsfat. While we were eating 15 kinds of fruit, tellling divrei Torah (comments and analysis of Torah topics), and drinking wine, a bus rolled up and deposited a mob of young Americans at the door. They were eager to have a religious experience among us religious bodies. We made room for them at the tables and they joined right in. The clearest picture in my mind today is of a young woman clad in tank top, shorts, and hiking boots standing up with a glass in her hand, enthusiastically shouting the blessing for wine as we prompted her. When she finished and tilted her head back to drink, the windows shook with the boom of our “Amen!”

I did get sort of wobbly that evening.

We don’t usually make a Seder Tu B’Shvat here at home, but this year we’re going to. I plan to cook this fruited chicken and serve it with couscous. Dessert – well, you’ll see later on in the blog.The hastily-snapped photo doesn’t do justice to the deliciousness of this chicken.

It’s a great main dish for a Tu B’Shvat dinner because all its fruit grows in Israel. True,  most of our dried fruit is imported from Turkey and other places, but in season you can buy the fresh, locally-grown versions at any greengrocer’s.

Tu B’Shvat Chicken

Start with the Chicken

Marinate your chicken in the juice of 1 large tangerine or orange, plus some good splashes of soy sauce. Put it in the fridge, covered, for at least an hour. Even better, overnight.

Proceed to the Stuffing

Cook 1 cup of rice with 2 cloves of garlic, salt, a little olive oil, and 1/2 tsp. of turmeric. 2 cups of water, of course.

Allow the rice to cool and put it in a bowl. To the rice, add a handful of toasted bread crumbs.

Chop 1 onion – add it to the stuffing bowl.

Chop, or cut into small pieces with scissors, 2 figs and 2 apricots.  Measure 1/4 cup raisins. Add all to the bowl.

Mince 1 or two small leaves of sage. Measure 1/2 tsp. dried thyme. Add to the bowl.

Add 1/4 cup pine nuts and 1/4 cup broken walnut pieces to the bowl.

Grind some black pepper over everything, add 1 tsp. salt, and mix very well.

Cram as much of the stuffing as possible into the cavity of the chicken. Separate the skin from the flesh and stuff stuffing in between, too.

Roast the chicken in a preheated 350 F – 190 C oven for 1 hour or till it’s cooked through and golden and a divine fragrance of roasted bird and herby, fruity stuffing wafts through the kitchen.