Here’s a tasty, quick and easy dish for the weekend.
I opened my first box of Ras El Hanout around 6 weeks ago when I made Moroccan chicken with sweet potato mash and I’ve met a few people who tried out the recipe and really enjoyed it so I’ve decided to use it again. I’ve used the Ras El Hanout as a rub on the chicken and then simply panfried it in strips. The accompanying spicy chickpea dumplings are given a nice bit of tang with the red chilli however if you are making this for children I would leave the red chilli out and use half a tsp mild chilli powder instead.
If you don’t have a box of Ras El Hanout try dry-frying and grinding together a blend of some or all of the following spices: cinnamon, cumin, paprika, chilli flakes, turmeric, pink peppercorns, ginger, nutmeg, clove (toast them in a hot frying pan with no added oil for a minute or too before grinding together with a pestle & mortar).
You will need: (Serves 4)
3 or 4 skinless fillets of chicken
1 tbsp Ras El Hanout
2 tbsp olive oil
1 red onion
1 red chilli
2 garlic cloves
1 x 400g tin chickpeas
1 tsp ground cumin
2 tbsp flour
2 small handfuls fresh coriander
2 ripe Avocados
1 lime
Method:
Rub the Ras El Hanout onto the chicken and cut it into strips.
Heat 1 tbsp olive oil in a large frying pan and fry up the chicken strips.
Peel and finely chop the red onion. De-seed and finely chop the red chilli and peel and crush the garlic.
Drain the chickpeas and blitz in a food processor or mini chopper with the red onion, red chilli, garlic and cumin.
Add 1 small handful of chopped fresh coriander and 1 tbsp olive oil to the chickpea mix and blitz to form a chunky paste.
Push the cooked chicken strips out to the side of the pan to keep warm while you cook the chickpea dumplings.
Put the 2 tbsp of flour onto a plate and take a tbsp of chickpea paste at a time and shape it into a ball and then lightly roll it in the flour and cook it in the pan for around 5 minutes until heated through.
Slice the avocados in half, remove the stone and scoop the flesh out into a bowl. Mash this with a small handful chopped coriander and season with salt and pepper.
Serve the chicken strips with the chickpea dumplings and the avocado mash with wedges of lime on the side.
Enjoy.
Til next time, Sheila