Culture

I stayed home sick today. It was miserable outside and I sound like a man. A man with a blocked nose. I took advantage of the day of paid sick leave at home to fill the house with the smell of slow cooked Moroccan chicken. I usually make it on the stove but I find it far easier and way more delicious to throw all the ingredients into a slow cooker and whack it on for six hours or so. The flavour has more time to develop and the chicken melts in your mouth.

I don’t really have a set recipe for this. It is sort of my lazy cooking meal. Very little effort is required. I just sprinkle over the spices in approximate quantities. Add more or less if you wish. If you are making this in under an hour just brown the chicken in a splash of olive oil along with the spices. Add the onion and garlic and sauté until soft. Pour over the tomatoes, chicken stock, chickpeas and dates and leave to simmer for 45 minutes until nice and thick.

Ingredients

Serves 4

• 500g chicken thigh, cubed


• 1 teaspoon chilli


• 2 heaped teaspoons cinnamon


• 2 heaped teaspoons ground cumin


• 1 teaspoon paprika


• 1 teaspoon ground coriander


• ½ teaspoon turmeric


• 1 teaspoon salt


• Freshly ground black pepper


• 2 onions, sliced


• 4 cloves garlic, minced


• 2 400g tins of chopped tomatoes


• 1 400g tin of chickpeasv
  
• ½ cup chopped dates;


• 3 cups chicken stock



• Rice, plain yoghurt and fresh mint to serve.

Method

1. Place all the chicken ingredients into a slow cooker. Cook on high for six – eight hours. Give it a stir every so often if you can. Serve atop rice or couscous and with plain, unsweetened yoghurt and fresh mint leaves, maybe even some chopped nuts too.


2. I feel like I need to insert some anecdote to fill in the lack of word count. Sorry, Zane.


3. It is seriously that easy. You should make it.