Moroccan Chicken

So disappointed that I haven’t done this dish justice with the photos because it is amazing.  It is truly one of those roll your eyes to the back of your eye-socket dishes.  It is simple to make, sounds sophisticated and might have looked sophisticated too if I hadn’t left out the scattering of red onion, lemon zest, mint leaves and crumbled feta that the original recipe in BBC Good Food magazine (October) called for.  But please believe me, there is no need for extra flouncing and flippery and the dish is perfect served with a simple side of coriander flecked couscous.

I’m not sure if I have borrowed ‘flouncing and flippery’ from Nigel Slater as I’m sure there are many of his descriptive nuggets lodged in my thought-space, speaking of whom I know he has released a new book ‘The Kitchen Diaries Volume ii’ of late and I am truly looking forward to his new TV series.   I believe Nigella’s book ‘Nigellissima’ hit the shelves on the same day as Nigel’s and I’ve seen much promise of spoon licking from her in the snippets of advertisements for her new programme too and with a book so named there has to be at least a smidgen of narcissism at work.  Don’t get me wrong though she is a cook that I greatly admire and I’ll be cosied up on the couch to watch her this Autumn too.  While we are waiting I am not missing out on viewing Lorraine Pascale’s ‘Fast, Fresh and Easy Food’ programme showing on BBC2 on Mondays.  I just love that show, Lorraine has such a genuine, no-nonsense approach to cooking and she isn’t shy of the microwave when it comes to melting chocolate – my kind of girl.
On this side of the water I’ve been admiring the food-styling of Rachel Allen’s ‘Cake Diaries’ programme on RTE1 on Wednesdays and think I’ll have to try out this Strawberry Cupcakes recipe as they are just too pretty to resist.
Leaving you on a savoury note though and please do try this Moroccan Chicken recipe sometime – you will love it.
Moroccan Chicken
(recipe based on BBC Good Food magazine – October 2012)
Serves 6
You will need:
4 large chicken breasts
2 tbsp olive oil or rapeseed oil
2 medium onions
4 medium tomatoes
100g ginger (this was approx. entire supermarket pack=good to use it up!)
3 cloves garlic
1 tsp turmeric
1 tbsp ground cumin
1 tbsp ground coriander
1 tbsp cinnamon (yes I know it’s a lot!)
2 medium butternut squash
500ml chicken stock
2 tbsp brown sugar
2 tbsp red wine vinegar
Method:
Heat 2 tbsp oil in a large saucepan/casserole pot over a medium to high heat and brown/golden the chicken breasts on all sides.
Meanwhile roughly chop 1 onion and the tomatoes and thinly slice the other onion.
Peel and roughly chop the ginger and garlic cloves.
Use a food processor/mini-chopper to bltiz the chopped onion, tomatoes, ginger and garlic together.
Once the chicken has browned remove to a plate and then cook the sliced onions until they being to soften.  Meanwhile chop up the part-cooked chicken on the plate.
Add the turmeric, cumin, coriander and cinnamon to the onion slices and cook for a minute.
Add the blitzed tomato paste and cook for a further two minutes.
Prepare the butternut squash by peeling, de-seeding and chopping into chunks.
Add the part-cooked chicken pieces, butternut squash, stock, sugar and vinegar into the onion mixture and stir well.
Raise the heat to a simmer, leave to cook for 20 minutes.
Serve with couscous.
Enjoy.
Til next time, Sheila.