If you’re looking for a way to change things up with your next roast chicken, this recipe comes complete with Peter Goffe-Wood’s stamp of approval.

For the chicken:

• 1 lemon
• 6 cloves garlic
• 2 Tbsp crushed dried chillies
• ½ cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1 whole chicken
• Salt and pepper

For the lentils:

• 1 cup green lentils
• 1 bulb garlic
• 1 red chilli
• 1 red pepper
• ½ red onion
• ½ cucumber
• ½ cup pitted green olives
• 1 preserved lemon
• Juice of 1 lemon
• 20 g mint
• Salt and pepper

For the preserved lemon: (make this 6 weeks prior for best results)

• 6 lemons
• 125 ml lemon juice
• 1 cup salt

1. Cut the lemon into quarters and then slice them thinly.
2. Peel the garlic and cut the cloves into thin slices.
3. Combine the lemon and garlic with the dried chillies and 2 tablespoons of the olive oil.
4. Rub this marinade all over the chicken and season with salt and pepper.
5. Place the chicken in a kettle braai over indirect coals for about an hour depending on the size of your chicken. You’ll know it’s ready when it’s golden in colour and the juice in the body cavity is clear.
6. Put the lentils, bulb of garlic and the red chilli in a saucepan and cover with water.
7. Simmer the lentils for 40 minutes or until soft.
8. Remove the pan from the heat and leave the lentils to cool in their cooking liquid.
9. Chop the red pepper, red onion, cucumber and olives into a neat dice roughly the same size as the lentils.
10. Remove the rind of the preserved lemon and dice.
11. Drain the lentils, remove the garlic and chilli and add all of the chopped vegetables together with the lemon juice and the rest of the olive oil.
12. Roughly chop the mint and add to the salad then season with salt and pepper.
13. Cut the chicken into quarters and serve on top of the salad in a large platter.

You’ll have to make the preserved lemon well in advance.

1. Cut the lemons as if to quarter them but slice in a way that the quarters remain intact.
2. Fill the lemons with the salt, place them in a glass jar and cover them in the lemon juice before sealing.
3. Turn the lemons occasionally so that they are all evenly submerged in the brine.
4. Keep the lemons in the fridge for six weeks and when they are ready, cut away everything except the rind. This is the only part that is usable as the flesh and pith will be too salty.

This rind when diced or cut into strips gives a fantastic zing to salsas and dips as well as subtle seasoning when added to soups and stews.