Simanim Chicken
For years, my favorite part of Rosh Hashana, besides having everything dripping in honey and our Shul’s rendition of ein kitzva was the Pri chadash. My parents would go all out gathering the most beautiful and interesting fruits we had never even heard of. Of course, there were some classics like the ugli fruit and the snot fruit (true names unknown) and then the new and beautiful things my parents would find every year. Then, my mother and I would assemble a @denisstheprescott style board of all of them. The sampling was the best part. After so many years of it, we should have assembled a list of tips to ripen each one, or ones we really didn’t like- I’m looking at you dragon fruit. But that would have ruined the spontaneity and excitement of it
One part where I’m pretty sure we failed on the balabusta list of rosh hashana prep was the simanim, I mean we had the apple and honey down but every single year without fail, we would have some sort of scramble for gathering the simanim and usually ended up with some sort of canned version of black eyed peas and the same beet salad every single year
It was always one of my goals as a married woman to make a super stunning arrangement for each person to cut out passing time and avoids that person who “by mistake” drops the fish head because it's just too gross altogether. I haven’t yet reached that point, especially because I am still lucky enough to spend Rosh Hashana with my parents and in laws but this year I have reached a new goal. I have managed to put together a good portion of simanim into one dish which brings me just one step closer to my goals of becoming a superwoman gishikte mama. This dish is actually so pretty it can be served on the baking dish it’s prepared on (provided it's not a disposable aluminum pan) Also, it tastes incredible. I’m not just tooting my own horn here. I actually tasted it and freaked out a little in my head. I also patted my back a couple of times and then picked all the crispy bits off the dish as I was photographing. It's okay. It's allowed. No one saw.
Once you have this stunning dish prepared, there will be no need to scramble for a million different tiny dishes! All you’ll need is beets, black eyed peas the fish stuff and duh apple and honey!
Simnaim in this dish and what they symbolize:
- Carrots (or fenugreek)- to increase our merits and withhold any bad decree
- Leeks (or cabbage)- that our enemies should be decimated
- Dates- that our enemies should be consumed
- Gourd- that our bad decrees should be torn up and our merits should be proclaimed
- Pomegranate-that our merits should increase like the seeds of a pomegranate
And just in case your looking to make a fab fruit platter like we did when we were younger check out the new fruit (pri chadash) display at seasons!
Thank you Seasons for sponsoring this post!
Simanim Chicken:
Yield: 6-8 portions
- 1 whole chicken spatchcocked (here's how), dried completely with paper towels
- 2 leeks, rinsed well and sliced lengthwise, white part and pale green part only
- 6-10 small carrots preferably multicolored with the tops attached
- 1 orange squash like butternut or kabocha, seeded and thinly sliced with the peel on
- 4-5 sprigs thyme
- 2 tbsp silan or 3-4 tbsp brown sugar, coconut sugar, honey
- ½ tsp fresh ginger, minced
- 2 cloves garlic, crushed
- ½ tsp cumin
- ½ tsp cardamom
- zest of 1 lemon
- 3-4 tbsp olive oil
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
- Parsley, tahini paste, and pomegranate seeds to garnish
- Preheat the oven to 425 F
- In a large roasting pan, lay the squash slices, carrots, leek and thyme in a single layer.
- In a small bowl mix the minced ginger, sugar or silan, cumin cardamom, lemon zest and olive oil.
- Nestle the chicken on top of the vegetables and drizzle the entire dish with the cardamom mixture.
- Sprinkle salt and pepper to taste
- Bake uncovered for 45-50 minutes or until vegetables are cooked through and chicken juices run clear. I like it golden brown.
- Top with chopped parsley, pomegranate seeds and a drizzle of tahini if desired.