Warmth and yellows and oranges are my signals for summer. This dish, which combines juicy chicken pieces and brightly colored carrots and lemons with warm Moroccan spices, fits right into the summer menu.
And suited to our summer schedule, it can be put together quickly and is done in about an hour. Karen Kidd describes it as “light and exotic” in her “Chicken Entrees” article, where the recipe appeared in the June 1989 issue of Bon Appétit.
Kidd recommends using 4 drumsticks and 4 thighs, but I opted for thighs only. Seasoned generously with salt and pepper, the thighs browned in a bit of olive oil.
I decided to double the amount of onions and carrots in the dish—and throw in a few cloves of garlic—to give the chicken a larger supporting cast. More vegetables are good for us, right? That was part of my thinking, but I had another driver—giant carrots. Sometimes giant carrots invade your world. This happened to us last week when our CSA box arrived bearing carrots that weighed a pound each!
The carrots brought back memories of a folktale that I read as a child about a family working to harvest an enormous turnip that had magically grown in their garden. The grandparents, children—even the pet dog, cat, and mouse—had to join in to successfully pull the giant turnip out of the ground.
Since some dedicated farmer had already done the harvesting of our vegetables, I figured I had the easier assignment: use the carrots for something delicious.
After the chicken browned, I removed all but one tablespoon of oil from the skillet and started cooking the vegetables in stages.
After I cooked the carrots a while, I added the garlic and then the spices.
After the veggies and spices had been sautéed, the thighs went back in the pot along with chicken stock and lemon wedges.
The stock allows you to get most of the fond—or good stuff—off the bottom of the pan—and then acts to marry the spices with the chicken. The lemon pieces impart a citrus note and spot of color that complete the summer brightness.
We enjoyed this dish over couscous cooked with a pinch of allspice and a few raisins tossed in. The gently spiced chicken was flavorful, the (magical) carrots just tender, the lemons meltingly transformed. It was a good way to start summer.
Moroccan Spiced Chicken with Carrots and Lemon
Sunnyside Cook
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 8-10 bone-in skin-on chicken thighs
- salt and freshly ground pepper
- 2 medium onions halved and sliced into strips
- 2 pounds carrots peeled and cut into sticks about 3 X 1/2 inch
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 2 1/2 teaspoons paprika
- 1 1/4 teaspoons ground ginger
- 3/8 teaspoon ground turmeric
- 1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/8 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
- 1 1/2 cups low-sodium chicken broth
- 1 lemon cut into 8 wedges and seeded
- 2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley
Instructions
- Season chicken thighs with salt and pepper on one side. Heat olive oil in large, deep skillet over medium-high heat. Place chicken, seasoned side down, in skillet. Sprinkle salt and pepper on unseasoned side, and cook until browned on both sides, about 12 minutes total. Transfer to large bowl and set aside.
- Carefully drain all but one tablespoon of oil from the skillet.
- Return skillet to medium high heat and add onion slices. Cook, stirring frequently, for about 8 minutes. (If the chicken has left a lot of fond on the bottom of the skillet, add 1 tablespoon of the chicken broth to the onions and scrape the bottom of the skillet, then continue sautéing.)
- Add the carrot pieces and cook for an additional two minutes, stirring from time to time.
- Add garlic and cook for about 30 seconds, stirring well. Add paprika, ginger, turmeric, cinnamon, and cayenne and cook for one more minute, stirring constantly but carefully.
- Add the chicken broth to the skillet and scrape the bottom of the pan as you stir it in. Return the chicken pieces and any juices that have collected in the bowl to the skillet.
- Add the lemon slices to the skillet and bring whole mixture to a boil.
- Lower the heat to simmer, cover the skillet and cook for about 30 minutes, turning chicken pieces over from time to time.
- Sprinkle chicken and vegetables with half of the parsley. Serve, garnishing each dish with a cooked lemon slice or two and a bit of the remaining parsley.
Notes
This sounds fabulous, Dawn! I will be making it soon, as I actually start getting close to my Moroccan journey. Thanks so much for sharing it.
Will definitely share this one with my daughter Amanda.
Yum!