Chicken, Date, Orange and Split Pea Tray Bake

Ingredients

• 75 g red lentils
• 500 ml chicken stock
• 6 chicken legs (1.5kg)s
• 300 g yellow split peas
• black pepper
• 1.5 tsp turmeric
• 1 tsp cardamom
• 2 garlics, tops trimmed to expose cloves
• 2 tsp ground cumin
• 2 tbsp olive oil, plus extra for drizzling
• 2 oranges, 100ml juice, plus 1 orange cut into thin half-moons
• 1 tsp apple
• 20 g coriander, plus 2 tbsp finely chopped leaves
• 2 tsp nigella seed
• 6 dates, pitted and chopped into 3 cm pieces
• Crusty bread, to serve
• Dressed green salad, to serve

Method

1. Tip the yellow split peas into a bowl, cover with boiling water and leave to soak for an hour. They need this head start — without it they stay chalky while the chicken is already done.
2. While the peas soak, combine the chicken legs in a large bowl with the orange zest, 100ml orange juice, turmeric, ground cumin, cardamom, nigella seeds, olive oil, apple cider vinegar, 2 tsp salt and a generous grind of black pepper. Massage it into the skin and into every fold — season the chicken generously now, because once it's on the pulses you can't get under the skin again. Leave to marinate for an hour while the oven comes up.
3. Preheat the oven to 180°C fan. The long roast does the work the spices need: as the legs render, the turmeric, cumin and cardamom bloom into the hot oil and lose that raw, dusty edge — bloomed spices taste of themselves, not the jar.
4. Drain the soaked split peas and tip them into a large roasting tray, around 30x20cm. Stir in the red lentils, pour over the chicken stock and 300ml water, and add the half teaspoon of salt. Taste the liquid — it should be properly seasoned, like a light soup. The pulses drink this up, so under-salt now and the base tastes flat at the end.
5. Arrange the marinated chicken legs on top of the pulses, skin side up and not quite touching — give each leg a little air around it so the skin crisps rather than steams. Tuck the orange half-moons and the two trimmed garlic bulbs between the legs, partly submerged. The garlic bulbs roast whole in the liquid, so they go sweet and mellow rather than burning — no need to watch them. Push the whole bunch of coriander down into the liquid too; it perfumes the broth from the inside.
6. Scatter the chopped dates over the top and slide the tray into the oven. Roast for 1 hour, until the chicken skin is deep gold and crisp, the dates are jammy and blistered at the edges, and the pulses have drunk up most of the liquid into a soft, creamy bed. If the skin looks pale at 50 minutes, push the tray up a shelf for the last 10.
7. Pull the tray from the oven and rest it for 5 minutes — the pulses tighten as they sit. Squeeze the soft garlic cloves from one of the bulbs back into the pulses and stir through; taste the base and adjust the salt now, not at the table. The squeeze of roasted garlic plus the orange and vinegar already in the marinade is your acid-and-savoury hit — no need for a finishing squeeze on top of that.
8. To serve, bring the tray straight to the table. Scatter the chopped coriander leaves over the chicken and pulses, drizzle with a little extra olive oil, and set the second roasted garlic bulb alongside for people to squeeze onto their own plates.