Easy Moroccan Chicken – Dinner in 30

Easy Moroccan Chicken is a dish we love. Chicken cooked until succulently moist and saturated with the flavours of olives, preserved lemons , onions and the warming scent of the spices along with fresh herbs. What we love about this dish is how intense the flavour is.

It’s a little bit stir fry, and a little bit braised with loads of onions fried gently, then add in diced chicken thighs that have been marinated with garlic, ground ginger, cumin, chilli flakes and turmeric to really nudge theEasy Moroccan Chicken.

Pour in some stock to bring the flavours together and throw in loads of chopped fresh parsley and coriander, preserved lemons slivers, juicy black kalamata olives and a squirt of lemon juice and the job is done. Just let it simmer away for a few minutes and your ready to serve. Got to love that!

At a Glance This Is What You Need To Make Easy Moroccan Chicken

We bumped into some friends the other day and decided to catch up that evening for dinner.  Despite the fact, we had a busy day in front of us it literally took 30 minutes to prepare dinner while chatting over a glass of wine. No stress and everyone enjoyed it.  What’s not to love?

Why Use Preserved Lemons Instead Of Fresh?

Preserved Lemons are like lemons on steroids. The flavour intensifies 10 fold, they’re super simple to prepare, and they keep for ages in the pantry. You’re gonna love these babies if you’ve not tried them before.

We keep our preserved lemons simple by only using salt and no aromatics such as cloves, cinnamon, coriander seeds, bay leaves and peppercorns. Our reason for this as lovely as the spices are is that sometimes we just don’t want the other flavours interfering with our want for a pure intensified lemon flavour.

Only the rind is used and the flesh is discarded. So use a fork to pick as many pieces as you’ll use from the jar and prize the flesh away from the rind and discard, then gently rinse the rind under cold water and you’re good to go.

The resulting preserved lemon rind is soft and satiny in the mouth, intensely lemony, and not bitter and acidic as if you were to use fresh lemon.

Preserved lemons take about four weeks before they’re ready to use and sadly this recipe requires preserved, not fresh lemons. So go ahead and make up a big jar so you’re ready to make this stunning dish, or grab a store bought jar and away you go.

What Cut Of Chicken Do I Use And Why?

Put simply chicken thigh is far moister than chicken breast. It is the only cut that we would make this Moroccan chicken with for that very reason. Chicken breast is not fatty and is very easily overcooked and becomes dry in the mouth.

Chicken thighs on the other hand are practically impossible to overcook and the meat remains moist and tender because of the higher fat content. Simple!

What To Serve With Moroccan Chicken?

Moroccan chicken has a lovely amount of flavoursome juices and we love to serve this with either rice or couscous to soak up the juice. Alongside the rice or couscous, it’s also great to serve a flatbread that has been lightly fried in some ghee to scoop up some chicken, rice or couscous and juice at the same time. Swoon! We could go some right now.

Watch How To Make Easy Moroccan Chicken

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Can I Freeze Moroccan Chicken

Moroccan chicken freezes like a dream. Simply allow it to cool down preferably after its been refrigerated and pop it into a suitable container leaving a little headroom as liquids expand once frozen and freeze for up to 3 months.

To thaw your frozen dish pop the frozen container in the refrigerator and allow it to thaw overnight before gently reheating over a low to medium heat in a saucepan and you’re good to go. Just cook up some fresh rice or couscous and you’ve got dinner on the table in 20 minutes. Too easy!

Don’t forget to let us know your thoughts when you make this fabulous Easy Moroccan Chicken in the comments below. 😀

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Yield: 4 - 6

Easy Moroccan Chicken - Dinner in 30!

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 15 minutes

Total Time: 30 minutes

Moroccan chicken is sure to become one of your go to recipes. Quick, economical and absolutely chock full of flavour. What's not to like?

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Ingredients

chicken seasoning

• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil 
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger 
•  6 fat cloves of garlic finely chopped 
•  1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin 
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper 
•  1 teaspoon chilli flakes (red pepper flakes)
• 1 teaspoon ground turmeric
• 8 boneless, skinless chicken thighs  (approx 2 lb or 1 kg) cut into generous bite sized pieces

cooking

• 3-4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil 
• 2 medium brown onions, halved and thinly sliced
• 1 cup chicken stock ( we use an Oxo chicken stock cube)
•  1 cup fresh flat leaf parsley, chopped 
•  1 whole preserved lemon, flesh discarded, rinsed and chopped into thin slivers - see notes
• 3/4 cup pitted kalamata olives 
• 1 cup fresh coriander. chopped
• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice 
• 1/2 teaspoon fine white pepper

Instructions

• Heat extra virgin olive oil in a pan and fry off onion on medium heat till softened without browning.
• Meanwhile combine the chicken and seasoning ingredients, toss well to coat evenly
• Add seasoned chicken and cook for 5 minutes (chicken will not be cooked through at this stage).
• Add the stock, bring to boil and then gently simmer for 5 - 8 minutes (depending on the size of your pieces), stirring occasionally.
• Lastly add coriander, parsley, olives, preserved lemons and lemon juice and pepper, simmer for a further 2-3  minutes.
• Serve with steamed rice or couscous and flatbreads
• enjoy!

Notes

• Preserved Lemons are easily made at home - see link above in text
• only the skin of the preserved lemon is used, discarding the flesh and keeping the skin which needs to be rlightly rinsed before using

Nutrition Information

Yield

6

Serving Size

1
Amount Per Serving Calories 205Total Fat 17gSaturated Fat 3gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 14gCholesterol 12mgSodium 245mgCarbohydrates 10gFiber 3gSugar 3gProtein 6g

Nutritional information provided here is only intended as a guide.

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