Moroccan Chicken

I haven't posted to this blog in a while... so here goes. I pulled this recipe off of The Stir

 Like most every other good recipe, this one starts with olive oil (~2 Tbsp), onion (1 large, sliced), and garlic (3 cloves, diced). I thought of pressing the garlic, but I actually did dice it eventually.

Notice the food is on a glass cutting board. It's good for holding stuff, but it's the absolute worst "cutting" board to have. If you care about your knife's edge, even a little bit, do NOT cut on glass. Get yourself some wood. Wood's #1. And plastic is ok too, especially for raw meat, since it is easy to run it through the dishwasher.

 Anyway, heat the oil (medium heat) and then throw in the onions and garlic. Cover and cook until onions are soft... about ten minutes.

 K, while the onions are cooking, you need to grab up some spices. Here we have:

1 Tbsp Sweet Paprika

1.5 tsp Salt

1 tsp Turmeric

1 tsp Coriander (Ground)

1 tsp Fennel (Ground)

1 tsp Black Pepper (Ground)

.5 tsp Cumin (Ground)

.5 tsp Ginger (Ground)

Now, set these aside, we'll use them in a minute.

 Just a quick note on the ground spices...

Consider grinding your own. Get yourself an old coffee grinder and use it... or use the old standby, the mortar and pestle. Just trust me on this one. There's nothing else like it.  You'll love it.

 We're also going to need the juice from 1 lemon.

 And yes, I know. The emergency room Doctor said I wasn't to be allowed "sharps", but hey... that was in IDAHO, I'm in Washington now! And let me tell ya, that lemon juice wakes you up when you get it in the cut on your fingertip that somehow magically appeared last week after you forgot your gloves and yet you were out there on the beach anyway, shucking oysters! (Genius)  I mean, what's the worst that can happen right? But, I digress...

 Crap. Speaking of digressing, I went to get the chicken for this recipe and realized I still have clams that need eatin' up!

Hey wait. Did you see that?

 Just sitting around with my siphon hanging out.

 Ok, so I really need to get this back on track. Where was I? Oh yes, once the onions are soft drop in your spices and stir for about a minute. Then you want to dump in water (1 cup), the Lemon juice from above, and some diced tomatoes (~14 oz). Bring this to a boil, and then add your chicken (1 lb, boneless thighs are what I used). Spoon some of the sauce over the meat and then reduce the heat and simmer, covered, for about 15 minutes. Then turn the chicken over and simmer some more, another 15 or 20 minutes.

 Now this was listed as "optional" in the original recipe, but since I'm an "optional" kind of guy and had three small eggplant in the fridge, I went for it. While the chicken is simmering, cut the eggplant (1 Large) into 1 inch chunks. I then tossed them in a bag with some olive oil and tossed it around to coat the chunks. Out onto a baking sheet with parchment paper, and we're in business. I baked them about 20 minutes at 350, and they were soft and brown.

 Once the eggplant and the chicken is cooked, grab yourself some fresh mint. The recipe says 1 bunch, chopped. But I just grabbed it out of the yard and tore it up. Throw it in with the eggplant, and olives (1 can) if you like olives. Just let this simmer for a few minutes until everything is heated through.

 And while you're doing that last bit of simmerin', you should probably toast your Almonds that you're going to top the Chicken with. Now I know it's easier to just throw them on and not take the time to toast them, but just like with the spices... trust me. It's worth it. Until you've toasted your nuts and ground your own spices, you're missing the second and third best things in life.

 And finally... we eat!

(I served mine over rice, you can do whatever you want.)