I thought I had made this dish up using ingredients from the farm but the Moroccans have added lemon and olives in the preparation of their chicken dishes for centuries
We use a free range or organic chicken but if budget necessitates a regular supermarket bird that will serve just as well.

Boil salted water, add 1/4 kilo of whole grain brown rice. We use organic rice from the Camargue, but again, this can be adapted to suit requirements and white rice will do. Once boiled and cooked, drain and leave to the side.

- Heat oven to 220
- Wash and pat dry the chicken

- To prepare the stuffing for the bird:
Chopped chives
8 peeled but whole garlic cloves (We usually use pink garlic but that is not always readily available. The white garlic is less aromatic but does just as well)
A large tablespoon of chopped fresh coriander
Two onions peeled and quartered
Chopped parsley
6 – 10 olives according to taste
Mix all the above in with the rice, add salt and pepper

- One lemon or bitter orange. Cut in half, squeeze the juice over the outer carcass of the chicken and then stuff half of lemon/orange into the bird

- Stuff the rice mixture into the chicken until the cavity is full, then press in two bay leaves and a sprig of rosemary, finally seal with the second half of the lemon or orange, cut side down and skin of fruit facing outwards.
- Cover the chicken with a small handful of mixed Provençal herbs
- Pour olive oil over the chicken, about four tablespoons depending on size of bird. Add salt and pepper
- Place in oven.
- After ten minutes, lower heat to 195 to 200 and leave to cook until crisp. Usually about one and a half hours.
(When the bird begins to turn brown, turn it over and then turn it back again for the last ten minutes).

We serve this with a green vegetable, such as steamed broccoli and usually serve with a bottle of St-Emilion red wine.