A delicious Moroccan dish that combines the smoky, tangy and spicy flavours of harissa with vegetables and chicken, though it's equally delicious as a vegetarian or vegan meal.
This dish is based on the recipe a Moroccan friend's mother taught me many years ago, though I've adapted it somewhat since then. I love tagine cooking—and there's no reason this can't be cooked in a tagine—but one of the reasons the dish has always stuck with me was the character of the funny woman who first taught it to me.
She was a busy person with a demanding job in one of London's local authorities. In her kitchen, she pulled me in conspiratorially and told me that she occasionally cooked it in a tagine, when she had time or when her fussy sister-in-law was around, but, "No!" she said holding up both hands. "Cook it in a pot. It's so much easier."
When she taught it to me, you either had to go to special stores or make the harissa yourself. These days, harissa paste is available in many supermarkets and, having tested it, it works just as well. Just make sure that the one you buy contains a generous amount of smoked paprika—what the Spanish call pimentón—to really get the lovely smoky notes that should come through.
I still tend to make my own harissa in larger quantities and keep it in the fridge (or freeze it) and use it as desired or, in the case of this dish, make it in situ.
The original uses the method of browning the chicken in the pot, removing it, then re-adding to the pot, as do many Asian and Middle Eastern dishes. I favour pre-preparing the chicken separately first, mainly because you can cook the base sauce in larger quantities and later add your preferred protein, whether animal or vegetable, as the mood takes you.
Chilli out
Some people bang on about harissa demanding dried Tunisian Nabeul and Gabès chillies. Others demand that you use Guajillo chillies because they are "the closest thing to authentic". Frankly, getting snooty about something "the closest to authentic" is a bit like boasting about your state room on a ship that has already sailed.
The story takes an even more amusing turn because food historians think the chillies were brought to North Africa by Spanish occupiers in the 15th and 16th centuries and that, in fact, the varieties they brought with them might have been cultivated by the Moors during the some 800 years they occupied the Iberian Peninsula. Ho hum.
I've used all of the above as well as dried Turkish, Indian and African red chillies and I can't say I've ever noticed a negative outcome. As long as they are dried, red, fairly large and pack a punch, you'll be fine.
These things are all relative, but it's fair to warn you this recipe is fairly spicy. On those dodgy menus in cheap restaurants that show spiciness by the pictorial number of chilies, this is a 3 (out of 4 chillies); 2.5 at the very least. Pare back on the chillies and pimentón if you don't like it when it burns a bit.
This recipe serves 2 to 4 diners, depending on how much you like chicken. Scale up as needed.
Shopping list
for the harissa paste
2½ tspn coriander seeds
2½ tspn caraway seeds
2½ tspn cumin seeds
5 large dried red chillies (see above)
1 heaped tspn pimentón (smoked paprika)
5 red chillies, deseeded
Approx. 1 tbspn dates; from a pitted and pressed "block" (optional)
a generous clutch of fresh coriander
6 cloves of garlic, chopped
2 tbspns concentrated tomato purée
the juice and zest of 1 fresh lemon
2 chipotle chillies or 1 tspn of chipotle past (optional)
Approx. 125ml olive oil
for the dish
1 large red bell pepper ; de-seeded and cut into slices
2 onions, diced
5 cloves of smoked garlic, very finely diced
1 tin 400g peeled plum tomatoes in their juice (ideally not Italian plum tomatoes)
1 tin 400g of chickpeas (or equivalent cooked, drained and cooled)
3 to 4 carrots, peeled and cut into fairly thin slices
1 fresh lemon
A generous clutch of fresh flat leaf parsley, chopped
Vegetable, rapeseed or olive oil; about 3 to 4 tbspns; enough to coat the base of your cooking pan/pot.
Chicken stock; fresh, cube or jelly as a total 250ml liquid
A pinch of salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
1 to 2 sections of chicken per diner (such as thighs or breasts); skin on
2 tspns of turmeric (for seasoning the chicken)
Cous cous or flatbreads , as an accompaniment
2 tspns cornflour (if needed)
8 pitted dried apricots (optional; see 'Alternatives' section below)
Cooking Method
the harissa paste
Make the harissa first. Do this directly before starting the main dish, or days before and store, sealed in the fridge until needed. Toast the coriander, cumin and caraway seeds in a dry pan. When toasted, roughly grind using a pestle and mortar
Soak the dried chillies in a bowl, barely covering with boiling water. Once they've somewhat rehydrated, remove the seeds and break into pieces, removing the seeds
To a food processor or suitable bowl, add all of the ingredients and blend (using a hand-held blender in the case of the latter) until a thick, rough paste. Use a little of the water in which you soaked the chillies to aid achieving the right consistency. The chipotle is a great addition, particularly if you love deeper, smokier flavours. But, as long as you add the pimentón, this smoky note will still come through, hence optional
the dish
Place the chicken sections in an oven-proof dish, skin-side down. Using clean fingers, massage about ⅓ of the finely chopped smoked garlic into the chicken. Season all with a little salt, pepper and a liberal sprinkling of turmeric. Add a very fine layer of olive oil using a pastry brush or spray. Cook in a preheated oven—at 250°C for about 15 to 20 mins (or better still, in a halogen oven at 225°C for approx. 10 to 12 mins)
Turn the chicken, skin-side up and sprinkle the skin with a little more turmeric. Baste/spritz with olive oil and cook for a further 15 to 20 mins (less if using a halogen oven). The chicken should be roughly ¾ cooked, ensuring the skin shows some signs of browning. You can do this immediately before starting cooking the dish or some time before. In the case of the latter, keep covered and allow to rest until you cook the main dish, ideally before the chicken requires refrigeration
Add 4 to 5 tbspns of the oil of choice to a large saucepan with a lid and heat on a high heat. Add the remainder of the smoked garlic, stirring to prevent sticking. Allow it to turn golden then add the diced onions. Reduce the heat to medium, stir, cover and sweat for 5 mins or so
Add the bell pepper slices and stir. Cover and sweat for a further 5 mins. Only when the red peppers show signs of softening, add ½ of the harissa paste if using the one made above ( a little less if using a concentrated store-bought version). Stir, allowing the spices to release their scent. After a few mins, add the peeled tomatoes and their juice and stir in to the ingredients. Allow the mixture to boil furiously for 4 to 5 mins
Slowly pour in the chicken stock and pour any of the juices from the roasting pan into the pot. Add the sliced carrots and gently stir in. Add slices of half of your lemon on top of the contents as well as the generous clutch of flat leaf parley. Bring to the boil, cover and simmer on a very low temperature for at least 15 mins, stirring occasionally
Add the rest of your harissa (less if using store-bought) and stir in. Gently add the chicken sections to the pot. Squeeze the remaining lemon juice over the chicken. Re-cover and simmer for a further 10 mins
Finally, add the chickpeas and simmer for a further 5 mins. If, by this time, the liquid has not yet thickened suitably, gently stir in the sifted corn flour, one teaspoon at a time, to achieve the desired consistency. Once this is achieved, cover the pot, turn off the heat and rest before serving
Meanwhile, prepare your cous cous or flatbreads. NB: The flat leaf parsley cooked in this way is likely to form into a couple of "clumps" while cooking (it wont if you chop it finely, if you prefer) that you can remove at this point. Similarly, you can also remove the lemon slices at this point—personally I love the flavour of the stewed lemon rind so always leave the detritus of the lemon slices in the dish. The take to table. Bon Appétit!
Alternatives
Vegetarian and vegans: until you add the chicken, this is essentially a vegan dish. My personal favourite alternatives to the chicken are to substitute it with large whole mushrooms—such as Portobello mushrooms—or chunky pieces of aubergine. Roast these in exactly the same way as you would the chicken, seasoned with salt, black pepper and turmeric and sptized/basted with olive oil. Obviously, this will take a little quicker and you should also add them slightly later in the cooking process, only about 10 mins before serving.
I personally avoid adding the apricots to the chicken version only because the dish is sweet enough already. However, there is something about the earthier flavours of large mushrooms and the almost bitter notes of aubergine that make the apricots work very well in the veggie/vegan version. Add them with the large veggies about 10 mins before serving.
Pescatarians: I haven't experimented too much with pescatarian versions of this dish, but there are two versions that almost make the chicken seem sad and insignificant: calamari and octopus. In the case of the former, I used whole "tubes" rather than calamari "rings"; in the case of the latter, large round slices from the upper end of the tentacles. In both cases, I roasted them in exactly in the same manner as the chicken, but with the addition of fresh lemon juice drizzled over the top before par-roasting. Both cook quicker than chicken, but slower than veggies—just keep an eye on the oven.
A vegan version featuring dry-roasted aubergine and extra red bell peppers
Pairings
My preferred tipples with this one is iced mint tea or a medium-bodied red, but I really want Karel to rise to the occasion for this one because I simply know he'll pull something out of the bag to blow us away.
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