Chicken and Stone Fruit with Couscous

  Posted on June 27, 2013  by Leslie Blythe  No comments

Guest blogger Jessica from Beauty Marks again.

My husband and I love any kind of Moroccan-style couscous dish. I had a bunch of fresh apricots and plums lying around that I knew we wouldn’t finish with our girls away from home, so I employed my Google-fu and found a recipe from the BBC that I adapted to make this delicious dish. Serve it with couscous and spice it up with harissa. Ras el hanout, the spice called for, is a Moroccan spice blend usually made up of cardamom, nutmeg, anise, mace, cinnamon, ginger, various peppers, and turmeric. (My apologies for the rustic look of the dish in the photo – we were so busy eating it that I forgot to take the picture until I put the leftovers away!)

Chicken and Stone Fruit with Couscous

1 large onion, chopped
1 Tbs grated ginger
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 lb chicken breasts or tenders cut into bite-sized pieces
2 tsp ras-el-hanout spice
½ cup red lentils
10 apricots, chopped (I used 7 apricots and 3 plums – it made the dish more colorful!)
Juice of one lemon
3 cups chicken stock (or water)
Handful of chopped mint

Heat olive oil in a large skillet. Add onion, ginger, and garlic and season with salt and pepper. Cook for about eight minutes.

Add the chicken and cook for about five minutes.

Add the spices, lentils, apricots and plums, and lemon juice.

Stir in the stock or water. Bring up to a boil, then simmer for about 15 to 25 minutes until the lentils are tender.

Serve over couscous and sprinkle with mint.