Sweet and Sour Roasted Chicken

This past week I finally did what I had been planning to do for a very long while; make a chicken dish with some beautiful dried fruit I bought at an Arabic grocery in Brooklyn. I bought dried plums and cherries from Sahadi's , in Brooklyn Heights on Atlantic avenue. They specialize in dried fruits, as 1/3 rd of the store is devoted to dried fruits and nuts, and they do it very well. Anyways, I made a marinade for the chicken out of these dried fruits with a tomato paste (about 2 1/2 tablespoons) and garlic base (2 tablespoons of minced garlic), 1 teaspoon of turmeric, sour cherry syrup (which has sugar in it, about 2 tablespoons), 3 cinnamon sticks, and just shy of a tablespoon of tamarind paste (be careful using tamarind paste, it is very strong), an 1/3 cup of filtered water. I stewed the marinade for 40 minutes or so, just until one of the cinnamon sticks opened up and released its fragrance. Once it cooled, I smothered the chicken with it, filled the chicken's cavity with the three cinnamon sticks, some rough chopped onion, and some preserved lemon, and let it marinate for 36 hours (I would have made it after 24, but I was busy). right before cooking, I drizzled the whole chicken with olive oil to lock in moisture. Here is my finished product!

One caveat: I roasted this at 450 like all the internet recipes had instructed me to, but with all this fruit, I really should have done it at 350 like my mom does. It made no difference for the chicken, it was moist and amazing, but I lost some fruit which was burnt black, and it was really a shame because some of those cherries plumped up to almost their original size like a dried mushroom does when soaked. Filled with olive oil, and chicken jus, it was an exquisite delight.
I made myself a plate before work one day, to fill myself before my service at the restaurant. I made a little salad to go with it, of chives, thai basil, and some red kidney beans, dressed simply in salt, and the olive oil and chicken jus from the roast (I should have added just a touch of black pepper or sour cherry syrup to the salad for more flavor, but I just didn't. Lazy, blazy, crazy, before work, and just wanting to eat.) Notice, the conspicuous lack of carbs on the plate, with the exception of the small amount of beans. I did this precisely, and deliberately, to avoid food slumber before my evening service.

I loved it, but next time, I have to premarinade my chicken with salt and additional turmeric to prime the bird for the second layer of marinade. You live, you learn.