Moroccan Chicken

I cooked "Moroccan Chicken" featured in Table Magazine May 2007 and it tasted fantastic. Nothing beats sitting down for a hot meal during cold evenings and this dish wasn't just hot, it was spicy too. But the reason why any dish would become my favorite is that it got to be easy. Don't get me wrong, I love cooking but I am no kitchen slave, you get what I mean?

So here's what you need:

2 tablespoons olive oil
2 onions, halved, sliced
2 tablespoons Moroccan seasoning mix
8 chicken high fillets, bone in, skinless (I can only find de-boned fillets, so I have to use those)
1½cups (375ml) chicken stock ( I know some of you make your own stock, that's actually the best if you can afford the time, but if you are time-pressed or impatient like me, I buy from supermarket)
grated rind and juice of 1 lemon
4 potatoes, peeled, cut into small cubes
150g baby green beans, tailed

Note: This recipe serves 4, it took me 10-15min preparing the ingredients and the cooking time was about 30 minutes.

1. Heat half of oil in a flameproof casserole or frying pan with a lid on medium. Cook onion, uncovered, for 3-5 min, stirring, until soft and starting to brown. Stir through Moroccan seasoning and cook for 1 min, until fragrant. Remove from pan and set aside.


2. Heat remaining oil in same pan on high. Cook chicken for 3 min each side, until browned. Return onion to pan and pour over stock, lemon rind and juice. Season to taste. Bring to boil and reduce heat to low.


3. Scatter potatoes around chicken, cover and simmer for 12 min. Add beans and simmer, covered for another 3 in, until chicken is cooked through and vegetables are tender. Serve chicken and vegetables with pan sauce spoon over. I served with rice.

Still Cooking? - Yep Still Cooking...

I think Summer is fighting with Winter and the weather's all screwed up. We have experienced it all in terms of weather changing patterns. Oh just let me build up drama and confusion to cooking and tough recipes selecting process, will you?

Its like this, the weather is confusing me so I do not know what to cook for dinner. So...I do oven roasting...a lot of oven roasting, everything oven roasting, ah...I think you follow.

There is no recipes to the kind of oven roasting I do, because I just kind of throw everything into an oven proof dish, then push it into the oven, then leave the kitchen and watch TV or read emails, then come back 45min to an hour later and ta-da! Dinner's ready. Erm...yeah, its that easy, any cooking skills involved? Ermmm..no.

I like the char taste so I tend to leave everything till slightly burnt before I bring them out of the oven. No no no, its has got nothing to do with me forget time while watching telly or playing with my laptop, its meant to be a little "char", ah...I think you follow.

So, I would go to the supermarket, pick up some carrots, potatoes, pumpkins, brown onions, capsicums, roma tomatoes, herbs and meat for roasting like pork, beef, lamb chops and cutlets. I don't like roasting fish and chicken, I prefer to pan-fry, stir-fry or stew or make into soup.

Here are examples of roasted and stir fried meals we had over the past 2 weeks.

Roasted Lamb forequarter with capsicum & onions drizzled with rosemary and olive oil and roasted potates and pumpkins, then finished with mint sauce when served.

Stir-fried baby bok choy with garlic and soy sauce

Stir-fried chicken thighs with ginger and shallots