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Easy Moroccan Chicken one pot meal

February 20, 2015 by manjirichitnis 22 Comments

The chill in the air is just right for warming one-pot meals. Make them healthy, quick, and easy to put together and you have a winner on your hands. Last year at the Cake and Bake show which I attended with a dear friend and fellow blogger,  I ended up spending a bomb (£££!!!!) on four different sized pots – non – stick being one of their biggest virtues. One of them is a huge wok which I intend to use to make a stir fry over the weekend. The coating is said to last for years and each vessel comes with a glass lid. I can apparently also shove them directly into the oven but haven’t tried that yet. The big and rather saucepan is what I use as my crockpot for making one-pot meals in. In fact, there is something very comforting watching a warming curry or gorgeously tasty and nutritious one-pot meals!

heaven in a saucepan - healthy , happy meals begin here!

Ok so coming back to my one pot recipe. I had a bag of baby spinach leaves in my fridge and was craving a wholesome soupy stew with lots of vegetables. So managed to gather a few things that I think would taste great together and then added in Knorr onion gravy pots and Knorr mixed chilli pot for flavour and the result was so very satisfying.  But the best part was adding in Ras El Hanout a delicious and fiery moroccan and North African fragrant spice mix. The delicate dried rose petals look so pretty , that’s why I decided to name my dish Moroccan Chicken one pot.I also devoured it for lunch today – umm.

 Moroccan Chicken one pot meal

Make this in a large quantity and it will freeze well. Batch cooking is highly recommended as it saves you time and ensures that you do not eat things that you will end up regretting when you are hard pressed for time and simply cannot cook.The freezer is a wonderful boon, use it!

I purchased a beautiful Red Leicester and Pumpkin seed batard to go with my meal – it is soul-satisfying to mop up the thick gravy with the bread while sitting on the couch watching my fav crime show on the telly, feeling all warm and happy.

The best part of this recipe is I haven’t added in potatoes or extra sugar to taste and yet the flavours are so well balanced. (Though both gravy pots do contain sugar) I love stocking up on these tiny Knorr flavour pots they are life-savers!

A recipe with enough spinach to make Popeye jump with joy! Spinach has several health benefits and is known to be a great source of folic acid and several essential vitamins and great levels of iron too. Best part is a big bag of spinach can be consumed in no time as the leaves are high in water content and it reduces in size when cooked.

 Moroccan Chicken one pot meal

Easy Moroccan Chicken one pot

Serves:4  Preparation Time: 10 minutes  Cooking time: approx 25 minutes

Ingredients:

  • Olive oil 2 tbsp
  • 1 large red onion
  • 2 cloves of garlic
  • Mixed bag of broccoli, carrot and cauliflower – 270 gm
  • Chicken thighs – 500 gm – appox 3 big pieces
  • Trimmed green beans – 75 gm
  • Chestnut Mushrooms – 4 – 5
  • 1.5 Knorr onion gravy flavour pot
  • 1 Knorr mixed chillies flavour pot
  • 4 handfulls of spinach leaves
  • Red lentils – without skin and halved 3/4th cup
  • 1/2 tsp of Ras El Hanout
  • 1/2 tsp of roasted cumin powder
  • Water

Method:

  • Remove the skin from the chicken thighs after washing thoroughly under running water.
  • Chop the chicken thighs to make strips of the flesh leaving just enough on the bone.
  • Wash and cut the broccoli, carrots,cauliflower, green beans and chestnut mushrooms bits into bite sized pieces.
  • Slice an onion lengthwise into fine strips.
  • Remove the skin from the garlic cloves and chop into tiny bits.
  • In a large saucepan or stock pot heat olive oil on a medium flame, when the oil becomes to heat up add the finely chopped garlic and saute’ until they turn a golden brown then add in the sliced onion.
  • Stirring occasionally allow the onion to sweat and just when it begins to brown add in the chopped vegetables and saute for half a minute.
  • Then add in the chicken thighs and saute for another minute.
  • Then wash and add the red lentils , add enough water to create a thick gravy – enough to allow the lentils to cook and not soak up all the water. Then add in the Knorr flavour pots and mix well.
Big, beautiful pot of healthy goodness - absolutely irresistible!
  • Then add the washed spinach leaves, cumin powder and cover and cook on a medium flame for 15 minutes.
Gorgeous Bowl of goodness with immunity boosting spinach and delicious veggies
  • By now the lentils will have cooked and the chicken will almost be done too.
  • Then taste the soupy water and if it is too spicy add just a very tiny pinch the Ras El Hanout , I added 1/2 a tsp as the taste reminded me of garam masala. Ras El Hanout is a moroccan mixture of fragrant spices with rose petals and gives the stock pot a gorgeous full bodied flavour.
  • Cook for a further 10-15 minutes on a gentle low flame.
  • Serve in large bowls with a big portion of the pumpkin batard bread.
Moroccan Chicken one pot meal recipe

Filed Under: Food, Healthy, Meat, Quick and Easy, Recipe Index Tagged With: @manjirichitnis, broccoli, carrot and cauliflower, chestnut mushrooms, chicken thighs, easy dinner recipe, easy recipes for healthy meals, eat healthy, garlic, Healthy, healthy recipe, Knorr mixed chilli pot, Knorr onion gravy pot, less oil, Manjiri, Manjiri Chitnis, Manjiri Chitnis Kulkarni, manjirikulk, masoor dal, Moroccan Chicken one pot, North African fragrant spice mix, olive oil, one pot recipe, quick and easy to put together meal, Ras El Hanout, recipe developer, Red Lentils, red onion, spinach, travelsfortaste, Trimmed green beans

Jerk Chicken and Coconut Rice

July 20, 2013 by manjirichitnis Leave a Comment

The first time I ate Jerk Chicken, was at a pop up Caribbean food stall near Haymarket Station, it was served with some tasty rice with red kidney beans and the most deliciously sweet plantain. Ever since I have been waiting to experiment and make this spicy chicken at home. Please resist the temptation of using a jerk sauce out of a bottle, it’s almost a crime because in the recipe I used from the BBC Good Food guide, it makes preparing the marinade a thing of joy. Not only will you learn how each ingredient lends its individual flavour but you can learn how to adjust the ”heat” in this amazing marinade. An advance warning, if you have sensitive skin PLEASE use gloves to marinate the chicken as Scotch Bonnet peppers are PACKED with heat. Ensure you THOROUGHLY wash your hands after you handle these ”hot babies” too! Humm now for the recipe, it’s essentially what was in the original but of course, I have added my own touches and I think they make quite an impact 🙂 So read on folks.

Jerk Chicken

Manjiri Chitnis
Caribbean Jerk chicken is an all-time favourite and tastes even better with a home-mademarinade
Print Recipe
Prep Time 20 minutes mins
Cook Time 45 minutes mins
Total Time 1 hour hr 5 minutes mins
Course Main Course
Cuisine Caribbean
Servings 4 people

Ingredients
  

For Jerk Chicken:

  • 12 chicken thighs with bone
  • 1 garlic sliced through the middle to go in the oven
  • 2 lemons halved to go in the baking tray
  • 1 pair of clean gloves if you have sensitive skin – to marinate the chicken

For the Jerk marinade:

  • 4 Garlic Cloves de-skinned
  • 1 small red onion
  • 1 bunch fresh spring onion roughly chopped
  • 1 portion ginger size that fits inside your closed fist washed, skinned and roughly chopped
  • 1 tbsp thyme – I had none so I used 1 tbsp of Mixed Italian herb powder
  • 3 scotch bonnet chillies de-seeded if you cannot handle very spicy
  • 2 tbsp soy sauce
  • 2 tbsp oil – I used sunflower
  • 4 heaped tbsp brown sugar – I used dark muscovado sugar
  • 1 tbsp ground allspice powder
  • 1 lime Juiced

Instructions
 

  • Blitz all the ingredients for the marinade in the mixer/food processor/blender and make a thick paste, do not add water as far as possible to ensure a thick puree like grainy paste
  • Wash and deskin the chicken thighs and make cuts using a knife
  • Then generously apply the marinade paste all over rubbing into the cuts made to ensure the flavour really seeps into the chicken
  • Marinate overnight in the fridge. Cover vessel with cling film
  • Keep about 2 tbsp marinade aside for adding in the baking tray
  • When you are ready to prepare the chicken pre-heat the oven to 180 – 200 degree Celsius, I have a fan oven
  • Prepare the baking tray by greasing with some oil, place the marinated chicken pieces and surround them with the lime slices and place the garlic halved
  • Cook in the oven for about 45 minutes or until juices run clear
  • When the chicken is in the oven start with the rice

Coconut Rice with Peas

Print Recipe
Prep Time 5 minutes mins
Cook Time 10 minutes mins
Total Time 15 minutes mins
Servings 4 people

Ingredients
  

  • 200 g Basmati Rice
  • 400 g Coconut Milk can
  • 1 bunch fresh spring onion finely chopped
  • 2 large sprigs of fresh thyme
  • 2 large cloves of garlic skinned and chopped very fine
  • 1 tbsp ground allspice
  • 200 g green peas

Instructions
 

  • Wash the Basmati rice under cold running tap water
  • In a heavy-bottomed vessel, add the washed rice and coconut milk, chopped spring onions, thyme, garlic chopped and allspice
  • Add 300 ml water, mix and add salt to season
  • Cook with lid on a medium flame till water begins to boil
  • Stir with a wooden spatula and then add the green peas
  • Reduce flame and do not cover completely, leave a bit of space for the steam to pass
  • Cook until done

Although the recipe I followed, uses red kidney beans since I was already using them in my Caribbean Sweet Mini Pepper Salad, I choose green peas for my Coconut Rice. I made my own homemade replacement for allspice powder too, it’s very easy and I intend to make it fresh each time I need instead of the store-bought one, simply because it is so quick and easy to prepare! Actually allspice is a spice by itself but it tastes similar to a mixture of cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and pepper.

Also Known as: Jamaican Pepper or New spice

Home made all-Spice Powder recipe

Home made all-spice seasoning

Manjiri Chitnis
Try myeasy to prepare and store home-made all-spice seasoning
Print Recipe
Prep Time 2 minutes mins
Cook Time 5 minutes mins
Total Time 7 minutes mins
Servings 1 portions

Ingredients
  

  • 1 tbsp Cinnamon powder or cinnamon stick – thumb-sized
  • 1 small tbsp pepper powder
  • 1 heaped tbsp of cloves
  • 1 full nutmeg grated

Instructions
 

  • In a pestle and mortar mix the ingredients and grate the nutmeg into it
  • Then smash together to makes a grainy powder
  • Some bits of the clove you may not be able to grind fine, I wouldn’t worry about it unless you want a fine powder then the smallest attachment on your mixer. I have an Indian mixer which I use for my coconut chutneys and it has 3 jars I used the one with 3 blades. Or else just use the pestle and mortar it should work.
  • Store away the remaining homemade allspice replacement powder in a tiny airtight container

A note about the brown sugar vs. dark muscovado sugar

Dark Muscovado sugar is the unrefined form of brown sugar ,its stickier ,heavier,has a longer shelf life than refined sugars and adds a more intense flavour to marinades and since it is stable at high temperatures is great for baking.If you do not have brown sugar its ok to replace it with dark Muscovado sugar. Although as the water content dark muscovado holds is higher one should accordingly taper the use of water in the recipe.

Brown sugar is white sugar and molasses and hence the colour and soft texture. It has the light and dark brown sugar varieties and the lighter it is the milder the flavour.

Muscovado,White & Light Brown Sugar

Filed Under: Food, Meat, Recipe Index Tagged With: allspice powder, bake, basmati rice, BBC Good Food Guide, can, caribbean, caribbean jerk chicken recipe, caribbean recipes, chicken thighs, cinnamon, coconut milk, coconut rice recipe, cook, cooking, delicious, easy home-made all-spice seasoning recipe, easy home-made caribbean jerck seasoning recipe, easy meals, eat, fiery, finely chopped, food, food blogger, foodblogger, garlic, green peas, homestyle jerk chicken recipe, hot, ingredient list, italian herbs, jerk chicken recipe, lemon, lime, marinate, muscovado sugar, nutmeg, oven, pepper, quick and easy recipes, red onion, roast, roughly chopped, scotch bonnet chillies, scotch bonnet peppers, simple jerk chicken recipe, sliceoffme, spicy, spicy lunch recipes, sprig f thyme, spring onion, summer party menu, sunflower oil, tarvelsfortaste blog, tasty, temper, tin, wikipedia, yum, yummy

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