Moroccan Chicken with Vegetable Cous Cous & Tzatziki – Simple Gourmet Cooking
May 17, 2017 Chicken / Delicious Food / Food / Gourmet food / Recipes
Moroccan Chicken with Vegetable Cous Cous & Tzatziki
Posted by Chef Keith
This isn’t a traditional Moroccan chicken, but more Moroccan-style.
Rather than serving up the chicken as a stew, this recipe marinates the chicken in the same spices, and can then be cooked in a number of ways; barbecue, grilled, or as I have done here, in a griddle pan.
The only downside to this dish is the fact that it needs to be prepared a few hours in advance
The tzatziki can also be made hours in advance and refrigerated, possibly straight after preparing the chicken
Once everything is prepared, it’s a relatively quick dish to cook, maybe 15 minutes!
Ingredients
Chicken
4 medium sized skinless chicken breasts
100ml olive oil
3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
2 tsp paprika
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp coriander
1/4 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp turmeric
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
Tzatziki
350g plain Greek yoghurt
1/2 cucumber
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
small sprig of mint
(or 1 tsp dried mint)
juice from 1/2 lemon
1 tsp finely chopped fresh dill
Cous Cous
250g cous cous
zest of one lemon
juice from 1/2 lemon
20g fresh coriander, finely chopped
small tin of sweetcorn, drained
1 red pepper, diced
100g fresh or frozen garden peas
Method
Chicken
Place all of the dried ingredients in a bowl, and stir in the olive oil. That’s it, the marinade is done!
Place the chicken flat in a strong bag, and using a meat tenderiser or rolling pin, flatten the breasts out until they are approximately 1/4 inch thick
This will allow all of the meat to cook at the same speed later on
Pour in the marinade, seal and massage the marinade into the meat, making sure to coat all of it.
Place the bag in a bowl, in case of leaks, and refrigerate for at least 1 hour. Overnight if possible
Occasionally move the chicken around, so it’s not always the same bit sat at the bottom, soaking up all of the marinade
Tzatziki
Cut the cucumber in half, down the length of it, and scoop out the flesh and seeds. This is the wettest part, and is not needed.
Grate the cucumber and place in a sieve over a bowl
Sprinkle with salt and leave to drain for around an hour.
You can speed this up by occasionally pressing down with the back of a spoon
Once the cucumber has stopped dripping liquid, pour out onto a tea towel and pat dry
Now place all of the ingredients in a bowl and mix together
Et Voila – Tzatziki!
Now comes the cooking part.
The chicken can be done on a barbecue, grilled (broiled), or on a griddle
It’s up to you how you cook this, but any way you do it, it’s going to take around 10 minutes
Go put a full kettle on to boil, you’ll thank me later
Make sure that your method of cooking is pre-heated, and add the chicken to a medium heat
Making sure the chicken doesn’t burn, turn it over after 4-5 minutes
Place the cous cous, sweetcorn, peas and diced pepper in a bowl and add the recommended amount of boiling water, as shown on the packet
(Now you know why you boiled the kettle earlier)
Stir well, and leave for 5 minutes to soak up the water
By the time the chicken is done on the second side, the cous cous will be ready.
Add a generous serving of cous cous to a plate, slice the chicken and place on top
Serve with some tzatziki on the side
via Moroccan Chicken with Vegetable Cous Cous & Tzatziki — Simple Gourmet Cooking
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