Serves 8
  • 8 Chicken Leg Quarters (~6-8lbs)
  • 6 cups lacto-ferment brine, such as that from Adamah or Bubbie’s lacto-fermented pickles
  • salt & freshly-ground pepper
  • 2 teaspoons paprika
  • 2 teaspoons granulated garlic (not garlic powder)
  • 4 onions, thinly sliced
  • 2 cups olive oil
  • 4 preserved lemons, finely diced
  • zest of one lemon
  • 1 cup mixed chopped herbs (any or all of the following:flat leaf parsley, thyme, mint, fennel fronds, marjoram, oregano)
  • 3 tablespoons diced chives
Brine the chicken
Submerge chicken pieces in a pickle brine in a Dutch oven or other large pot.  Weight pieces down, or add additional water, to ensure meat is fully covered.  Brine overnight in the fridge.
Season & roast
Dry chicken. Season with salt, pepper, paprika, garlic. Put in a roasting pan with an inch of water. Seal tightly and cook at 225F for 6-8 hours, or until the leg pulls right off.
Prepare the onions and lemon
An hour or so before serving, heat olive oil in a wide, heavy-bottomed frying pan.  Add onions and cook for at least 45 minutes over low heat, stirring occasionally, until medium brown and sweet.
Finely dice preserved lemons and set aside.  (If preserved lemons are not available, make a quick version by boiling lemons in 2 cups water with 1/4 cup sugar and 1/4 cup salt for an hour.)
Shred the meat
Allow chicken to cool until you can handle it. Remove chicken from pan and pull all meat from bones, without discarding the cooking liquid. (Save the bones to make chicken soup stock another time.)  Set pan over medium heat to reduce cooking liquid until thick, 7-10 minutes. Remove from heat, and return pulled chicken to the pan.
To serve
Fold caramelized onions and diced lemons into the chicken. Garnish with lemon zest and chopped fresh herbs.