Roasted Chicken with Dates, Olives and Preserved Lemon

If you want a bold-flavored chicken dish to please a crowd at your Passover Seder or any time of year, try this one, adapted from Birba in Palm Springs, Calif. Both sweet and savory, the roasted brined chicken caramelizes beautifully in the oven and gets garnished with bright green Castelvetrano olives, preserved lemons, capers and dates. The only tricky part is cutting up the whole broiler chickens, preferred for their dainty size by Ms. Lazar. If pulling out kitchen shears feels like overload, you can use store-bought chicken pieces instead. Marinated -- and even roasted -- in advance (see Tip), this chicken makes serving for a big crowd a seamless affair.