Moroccan Chicken with Couscous

So Dan came to visit for a couple days on his way from Colorado to California. Yesterday, we drove down to Sedona and went hiking up Cathedral Rock. It was beautiful and I wish I had brought my camera. He said they'd been eating a lot of bad food on the road so I thought I'd make dinner one night he was here. The Moroccan chicken recipe I made is really simple...I didn't measure any of the spice, though, so it's more like a few more shakes of the turmeric and cumin (probably around 1 tsp. each) and a just a shake or two of the cinnamon, coriander, ginger, and cayenne (maybe 1/4 to a 1/2 tsp. each).

Moroccan Chicken and Couscous

for the chicken...
2 tbsp. olive oil
4 boneless skinless all-natural chicken pieces
1 zucchini, cut into 3/4" half rounds
3 carrots, cut into 3/4" half rounds
1 clove garlic, minced
spices: turmeric, cumin, cinnamon, ginger, coriander, cayenne
1 c. chicken or vegetable broth
fresh parsley
1/3 c. raisins and dried apricots (sliced)
1/2 c. canned garbanzo beans, rinsed and skin removed

for the couscous...
1 1/4 c. water
pinch of salt
couple drops of olive oil
1 c. couscous

Heat a medium sized skillet over med-high heat and add olive oil. When hot, brown the chicken about 3 minutes on each side. Remove to a plate and set aside. Reduce heat to medium and add zucchini, carrots and garlic to the skillet. Stir and add spices. Continue cooking until vegetables begin to soften, about 5 minutes. Place chicken back into the skillet on top of the vegetables. Add broth and a few sprigs of fresh parsley. Cover and allow to simmer until chicken is cooked through and vegetables are tender. Add dried fruit and garbanzo beans and continue to cook 5 more minutes. Remove cover and raise heat a bit to reduce the liquid in the pan.

For the coucous, bring water, salt, and oil to a boil. Stir in couscous, cover, and remove from heat. Allow to sit five minutes, then fluff with a fork.

Serve chicken over couscous.

The spices in this dish are really warming and perfect for a cold day. I can never decide what my favorite part of it is....the garbanzo beans or the dried fruit. It really does have a perfect flavor balance. Hope you try it.

After we ate, Brittney and a friend that she met in the hostel laundry room came and joined us for movies and dessert...which was apple crisp; made mostly with apples I picked from my grandma's tree before coming home. I tried a new recipe from the Chez Panisse: Desserts cookbook and it was quite tasty; even though Brittney bumped the dial and sent the oven up to 450 degrees for the first 20 minutes. We had a VERY crispy crisp but it was saved with a foil cover while the apples finished cooking. I don't think it beats the recipe I usually use, from the Vegetarian Epicure, but it was a welcomed stray from the norm.