North African Friday night chicken

So-called because it takes a bit longer than my usual mid-week 30 minute meals, so I tend to cook it on Friday night when there’s a bit more time to spend in the kitchen. Serves 3-4.

Ingredients

600g chicken breasts, cut into 3 or 4 pieces
Small onion, chopped
2 medium tomatoes, chopped
1 or 2 carrots, cut into chunky slices
2 courgettes, cut into 2cm wide slices
Tablespoon sunflower oil

Herbs and spices:
teaspoon ground turmeric
teaspoon ground cumin
teaspoon ground cinnamon
Coriander leaf, dried
Parsley, dried
Pinch of saffron threads

Couscous:
Packet of lemon-flavoured couscous 110g
55g plain couscous
Dried chilli flakes.

Method

• Heat the oil in a large frying pan and brown the chicken pieces.
• Add the chopped onion and cook until it begins to soften.
• Add the turmeric and cumin.
• Pour in 350ml water, add saffron strands, ground cinnamon, a good shake of coriander leaf and parsley and the chopped tomatoes.
• Bring to the boil, add the carrots and courgettes and simmer for 25 minutes.

While it simmers, prepare the couscous:

• Boil the kettle.
• Tip the couscous from both the packet and the extra plain portion into 300ml of boiling water in a small pan. Add a shake of dried chilli flakes. Bring to the boil and immediately remove from the heat.
• Cover and leave for at least 5 minutes until all the water is absorbed.

Serve:

Serve the chicken and vegetables on top of the couscous. There will be a chicken broth which can be either served on the side or a cupful of it can be poured over the chicken and couscous.

Note about the image:

This is a variation which I cooked recently, still in the pan! I had run out of carrots and substituted them with a  small yellow pepper sliced up instead.