Spice Up your life! - A Cheats guide to Morocan Chicken on a bed of Cous Cous
February 25th 2010 13:31
The other night I was feeling ever so lazy-bazy. (What? That's NOT an actual word?!)
My son was all tucked into bed and my partner was yet to come home from work.
I had gone through my checklist and housework was all done - wash load on: check, wet laundry hung: check, toys put away: check, dishes in the dishwasher put away: check. Dinner: ......? No check. Boo.
Usually by this time I'd already be elbow deep in some new dinner concoction - but nope not that night. I found it more productive to skim old recipe mags I had in a pile under the coffee table. (And the fact they were only an arms length away from where I was sitting and didn't require 'getting up' may or may not have any reason to do with the fact I had picked them up and started reading them).
I found myself flicking through an old recipe book I had collected (read: hoarded) some years back and came across an ad/promo for Masterfoods spices about Portuguese Chicken.
Lightbulb!
The dinner sounded easy enough - didn't require any exertion of any level, and that suited my lazy arse just fine!
I thought I'd try the recipe with a bit of a twist - a Moroccan one at that.
Instead of Portuguese Chicken spices I used a Moroccan blend I already had on the spice rack. You can find them in the dried spice aisle at your local supermarket. You don't have to use the Masterfoods brand - it'll taste just as yummy whatever the brand.
As well as that I used:
5 chicken drumsticks
3 large potatoes - peeled and cut into small wedges
A handful of cherry tomatoes
One spanish onion - peeled and cut into chunks
500mls of chicken stock
cous cous
(Keep in mind these portions are for two people!!)
Pre-heat oven to 180C and season the chicken drumsticks with the Moroccan spice blend and put to one side.
Prepare the onion, potatoes and cherry tomatoes and pop into a med-large baking dish.
In a frying pan brown the drumsticks in some heated oil so that the skin goes a little crispy.
Once accomplished, add stock and bring to boil. Then add to the baking dish with the other vegetables. Pop in oven for about an hour, covered with foil.
For the cous cous - follow directions on packaging.
Plate up.
Devour.
My night went from Boo! to Woo! as the feedback I got from fussy fusserson aka Stuart was positive. As expected the onion and tomatoes were left behind. He showed his Scottish blood by woofing down the potatoes and was cautious with the drumsticks leaving only the skin. That's fine, I was happy to have the skin - THE SKINS THE BEST BIT!! (Who's with me??!)
As for the cous cous, well, he didn't appreciate my joke that 'cous cous is so good they named it twice!' but instead he said it was like being at the beach and having sand in your mouth. I argued 'It's meant to be like that, it's a Moroccan THEMED dinner after all!!!'.
That joke also fell flat.
So, not a comedienne - Check.
Try-hard chef - Check.
Overall yummy dinner by me - Check.
Oh, yep. Check that baby out! Check.
Looks like a good list to me!
My son was all tucked into bed and my partner was yet to come home from work.
I had gone through my checklist and housework was all done - wash load on: check, wet laundry hung: check, toys put away: check, dishes in the dishwasher put away: check. Dinner: ......? No check. Boo.
Usually by this time I'd already be elbow deep in some new dinner concoction - but nope not that night. I found it more productive to skim old recipe mags I had in a pile under the coffee table. (And the fact they were only an arms length away from where I was sitting and didn't require 'getting up' may or may not have any reason to do with the fact I had picked them up and started reading them).
I found myself flicking through an old recipe book I had collected (read: hoarded) some years back and came across an ad/promo for Masterfoods spices about Portuguese Chicken.
Lightbulb!
The dinner sounded easy enough - didn't require any exertion of any level, and that suited my lazy arse just fine!
I thought I'd try the recipe with a bit of a twist - a Moroccan one at that.
Instead of Portuguese Chicken spices I used a Moroccan blend I already had on the spice rack. You can find them in the dried spice aisle at your local supermarket. You don't have to use the Masterfoods brand - it'll taste just as yummy whatever the brand.
As well as that I used:
5 chicken drumsticks
3 large potatoes - peeled and cut into small wedges
A handful of cherry tomatoes
One spanish onion - peeled and cut into chunks
500mls of chicken stock
cous cous
(Keep in mind these portions are for two people!!)
Pre-heat oven to 180C and season the chicken drumsticks with the Moroccan spice blend and put to one side.
Prepare the onion, potatoes and cherry tomatoes and pop into a med-large baking dish.
In a frying pan brown the drumsticks in some heated oil so that the skin goes a little crispy.
Once accomplished, add stock and bring to boil. Then add to the baking dish with the other vegetables. Pop in oven for about an hour, covered with foil.
For the cous cous - follow directions on packaging.
Plate up.
Devour.
My night went from Boo! to Woo! as the feedback I got from fussy fusserson aka Stuart was positive. As expected the onion and tomatoes were left behind. He showed his Scottish blood by woofing down the potatoes and was cautious with the drumsticks leaving only the skin. That's fine, I was happy to have the skin - THE SKINS THE BEST BIT!! (Who's with me??!)
As for the cous cous, well, he didn't appreciate my joke that 'cous cous is so good they named it twice!' but instead he said it was like being at the beach and having sand in your mouth. I argued 'It's meant to be like that, it's a Moroccan THEMED dinner after all!!!'.
That joke also fell flat.
So, not a comedienne - Check.
Try-hard chef - Check.
Overall yummy dinner by me - Check.
Oh, yep. Check that baby out! Check.
Looks like a good list to me!
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