Moroccan Chicken

Here's another little treasure from thekitchn.com which I have made a couple of times now - the first time at a dinner party earlier this year and it went down a treat. 

It's a simple recipe that requires little hands on time but will simmer away slowly until the chicken is lovely and tender and falls apart easily, and is as easy to make for a larger group as it is to make for one person - leftovers will keep perfectly in the fridge for up to a week.

For the dinner party I was cooking for 8 people so I followed the recipe to the letter as it was to serve 6 to 8. I felt then that the dish was quite dry so last night I decided to use half the chicken and kept the amount of sauce the same. The end result was better but surprisingly I still felt that it was a little dry.

Here's what I did, to serve 3 to 4

Chicken Tagine With Apricots, Almonds & Chickpeas

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 4 chicken thighs, skinless & boneless
• 1 yellow onion, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1-inch piece of ginger, peeled & minced
• 1 teaspoon ground coriander
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 cup chicken stock
• 1/2 cup dried apricots
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 1/4 cup almonds, roughly chopped
• 1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
• chopped cilantro to serve

1. Warm 1 tablespoon of oil in a large pot, or tagine if you have one, over a medium high heat. Season the chicken with salt and pepper, and cook for 5 to 8 minutes, flipping once, until both sides are golden brown. Remove to a clean plate.
2. Saute the onions with half a teaspoon of salt until they are beginning to brown, about 10 minutes. Stir in garlic and cook for about 30 seconds, then sprinkle in the garlic, coriander, cumin and cinnamon and cook for about a minute.
3. Stir the chicken stock and apricots into the pan, scraping up any seared bits that may be stuck to the bottom of the pan.
4. Place the chicken back in the pan and bring the liquid back to the boil, then reduce the heat to low. Cover and cook for 50 to 60 minutes until the chicken is cooked through and the juices run clear.
5. Transfer the cooked chicken to a clean plate and tent with foil. Add the honey, almonds and chickpeas to the pan and increase the heat to medium high. Bring the stew to a rapid simmer and cook until it has thickened slightly. Taste the sauce and season if required.
6. Serve the chicken on top of couscous with a portion of the sauce on top, and sprinkle with the cilantro.

So like I said above, there still wasn't enough sauce for my liking and next time I think I will try using 50% more of the ingredients from garlic through to honey, but keep the amount of almonds and chickpeas the same. 

I love a nice slow cooked stew, one that allows the meat to cook gently until it is so soft it will fall apart at the first touch of the fork, and gives the spices enough time to slowly come together until they blend seamlessly. I am not a fan of dried fruit, (it's a texture thing) but the slow simmer here gave the apricots time to break down until they were barely noticeable except for the wonderful fruity sweetness they add to the dish.

All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed this dish and I am looking forward to playing around with it to get it just to my liking. As you know, I will keep you posted ....

BTW - I tweaked my guacamole recipe last weekend to much success, and if you are interested you can read about it at the end of my post here

Butter Paneer

Ive been a little uninspired in the kitchen for a few weeks, and quite frankly the couple of new things I tried came out a bit crap and were definitely not blog-worthy.

This recipe looked like it had potential, though, and I was very pleased that I gave it a try. I found it on another of my favorite foodie websites - Serious Eats - and I wholeheartedly recommend that you check them out and sign up to their mailing list as the newsletter is full of wonderful dinner and cocktail ideas.

This was my first time cooking with paneer, an Indian cheese, and I had actually only tried it once before in a curry which I really enjoyed so I was quite excited about trying this recipe out.

So, I shall confess now that this was supposed to be a Butter Paneer with Spinach, but as I was blanching the spinach I turned my back for about 30 seconds too long and was left with a soggy pile of green awfulness that promptly went straight in the bin! I didn't have enough spinach left to do a second batch, but I did have some peas lurking in the freezer and they went perfectly with the dish, and I think I enjoyed it a lot more with the peas than I would have the spinach.

Anyway, here's the recipe:

Butter Paneer

Please pretend the bag of spinach is in fact a bag of peas!

• 4 tbsp unsalted butter
• 1 medium onion, sliced
• 1 3-inch knob of ginger, chopped - approx 3 tbsp
• 1 jalapeno pepper, sliced
• salt
• 1 28oz can tomatoes, preferably fire roasted (the original recipe called for whole tomatoes but I used diced and it came out fine)
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 3 tbsp honey
• 1/4 - 1/2 cup heavy cream, to taste
• a couple of handfuls of peas (they all fell out of the bag straight in the sauce when I was pouring them in, but I estimate it was a couple of handfuls!)
• 1 lb paneer, diced into small cubes
• 1/4 cup chopped cilantro

1. In a medium pot, melt the butter then stir in onion, ginger and jalapeno. Sprinkle with 1/2 tsp of salt and cook for 5 to 7 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the onions are soft.
2. Add tomatoes, cinnamon and salt. If you are using whole tomatoes, use the spoon to squish them and break them up a bit. Cook uncovered for 10 - 15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the sauce has thickened and there is only a little liquid left.
3. Transfer sauce to a blender or food processor and puree until smooth. Wipe the pot clean and pour the sauce back into the pot through a fine mesh sieve. Add salt and cream to taste - I went for the full 1/2 cup of cream as I LOVE creamy sauces.
4. Add peas and paneer to sauce and stir gently. Cook for about another 5 minutes - enough time to warm the paneer and peas. Add half the cilantro, and use the other half as garnish.

I chose to serve it with brown rice which was perfect for soaking up that lovely creamy sauce, but it would also be delicious with a naan or some other kind of flat bread. 

I won't lie, between the butter, cream and copious amounts of cheese this was not a healthy dish! It was thoroughly enjoyable, though, and I loved the texture of the paneer - kinda creamy but still with some bite - which paired wonderfully with the peas.

 

This was a super easy recipe to make, even though it took a bit longer than the suggested half hour. I only have one criticism, and that was that it was a little too sweet. I will definitely be making it again, but next time I think I will put less honey in, and maybe a little less ginger. I'll probably also throw an extra jalapeno in to give it a bit of a kick.

I'll let you know how that goes ....