BY PASCALE SMETS
This is one of those dishes that works at any time of the year.
I’ve done it with mashed chickpeas and cumin-braised carrots in the depths of winter, and a big salad, crispy roasted chickpeas and some buttery couscous on a summer’s evening.
It’s perfect for feeding a crowd as the only part that requires any attention is the chicken, the roasted chickpeas and couscous are so simple they barely register as ‘cooking’.
Moroccan Chicken
This dish originates from a Nigel Slater recipe where he flash fries the chicken, but in this version the chicken is fried then braised and I use a lot more raisins and chillies – resulting in a sweeter, spicier version with something between a sauce and a relish of fat little raisins and pine nuts to serve on the side.
Ingredients (for 8)
2 small chickens, jointed
2 tbsp neutral flavoured oil for frying
For the marinade
Juice of 2 large or 3 small lemons
1 cup of olive oil
5 cloves of garlic sliced
1 heaped tsp ground cinnamon
2 tsp crushed dried chillies
1 tbsp dried mint
For the sauce/relish
350g Raisins
100g Pine nuts
1 red chilli finely chopped (optional)
small bunch of fresh mint
3 cups chicken stock
Method
Put the jointed chicken and the marinade ingredients in a ziplock bag, give it a bit of a massage and leave in the fridge for at least two and up to eight hours.
When you are ready to start cooking, fish the chicken out of the marinade brushing off as much as possible (make sure to keep remaining marinade though) coat the bottom of a large sauté pan with oil and once hot fry the chicken in batches until coloured and crispy (take great care as it will really spit).
Once done, remove the last bits of chicken from the pan and deglaze it with some of the chicken stock, add the remaining stock plus marinade and return the chicken pieces to the pan.
Scatter over the raisins, pine nuts and chilli (if using) poking everything into the gaps so they are submerged in the liquid. Put a lid on the pan and simmer over a low heat for about 40 minutes.
You will have to rearrange the chicken pieces every so often, swapping the ones laying on top away from the liquid with those underneath.
If it starts to dry out too quickly add some extra water. However, by the end of the 40 minutes the liquid should have all but evaporated and you should be left with fat, glossy raisins, slightly swollen looking pine nuts and darkly aromatic chicken.
At this point I remove everything from the pan, separating the raisin relish from the chicken pieces so I can dry fry the chicken to re-crisp the skin. The raisin relish can be served straightaway with some fresh chopped mint and coriander sprinkled over, or alternatively simmered in a small pan with extra water to create a kind of gravy.
Roasted Chickpeas
Ingredients for 8
3 tins of chickpeas drained and rinsed
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp ground cumin
3 tbsp olive oil
salt & pepper to taste
Method
Pat the chickpeas dry on kitchen towel.
In a ziplock bag combine the oil with the spices, salt and pepper. Add the chickpeas and give it a shake about so it’s coated in the spiced oil.
Tip everything into a roasting tin making sure its large enough to accommodate the chickpeas in a single layer.
Roast at 220°c for about 30 minutes until the chickpeas are golden and crispy.
Remove with a slotted spoon leaving behind any excess oil.
Any leftovers are excellent scattered through a mediterranean style salad.
Pascale’s Instagram address is @foodinteriorsgardens