Moroccan Chicken with Couscous & Moroccan Bread

Today was one of those days where I had lots of things to do, so really did not want to spend a lot of time and effort with the evening meal. I had a cycle ride planned for about 4pm so the last thing I would want to do would be thinking about dinner when I got home from that all beet red and sweaty. I knew I only had a meat selection of chicken, chicken or chicken, so chicken won out and I settled on a crockpot recipe that could simmer away all day and look like I had been slaving for hours! Whip up some couscous to go with it and what a tasty meal.

Well, the cycling got cancelled as Tony had to work late which meant I had no-one to look after the kids, so what is a bored foodie to do. I know, let's whip up some Moroccan bread as well. Trusty old Google came to the rescue and I found several great recipes. The one I liked best was an easy looking bread called Authentic Moroccan Bread

So I threw all the ingredients in my stand mixer (which is all of about 2 weeks old I might add), went out and fed the hens and the rabbits and when I came back in about 5 minutes later, my poor old mixer had smoke coming out of the top and was kaput!!! So the easy bread making session I had envisaged turned into hard slog with me kneading dough for about 10 minutes! Crikey, it felt like my arms were going to fall off. Anyway, it turned out fantastically. Bread kneading is a good way of dealing with life's frustrations!! Take that and that!!!!

I had made No Knead Spelt Bread a few days ago and this was divine. Well, the kids reckon this bread comes a close second!!

So the chicken recipe I chose was one by Simon and Alison Holst out of their book Year Round Recipes for Crockpots & Slow Cookers A great book that has a good variety of easy to make and tasty recipes. I just made some simple couscous to go with it...adding chicken stock, lemon juice, currants and a knob of butter. Easy peasy, but yummy!

Moroccan Chicken
1kg chicken pieces or large chicken chunks
2 tbsp plain flour
3 tbsp olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
3-4 cloves of garlic
1 tbsp tomato paste
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp salt
zest and juice of 1 lemon
2 tbsp chopped coriander leaves

Chop the chicken if using chicken chunks and coat with flour. Heat 1tbsp of oil in large frypan and cook chicken until golden brown on all sides. Transfer into crockpot.

Put onion and garlic into small food processor and chop finely. add remaining oil, tomato paste, spices and salt and process until a thick paste is formed.

Zest the lemon and add this and the juice to the paste and pulse to combine.

Spoon the paste over the chicken, and turn to coat. Cover and cook on LOW for 4-5 hours.

Garnish with fresh chopped coriander