One Pot Meal Moroccan Chicken

It’s been a hectic past couple of weeks here at the ol’ Kosmas Flores household, with a whoooole lot more going on than just this Moroccan chicken. I’m going to be out of town April 23rd through May 21st, so I’m trying to get everything at the house and in the garden ready for my long absence. This means lots of transplanting, setting up the ol’ automatic watering system, cooking, writing, and blogging. It will be the longest I’ve been gone so far—I didn’t intend for it to be that long but it just kind of happened that way. I’ll be hosting two workshops while I’m gone, one in Portugal with Olaiya Land and one in Italy with Valentina Solfrini, but an opportunity came up to host a small supper at Feedfeed Brooklyn with dishes from my new cookbook, so I ended up having to leave earlier than I’d originally planned. I’m really going to miss Jeremy and the animals…I wish he could come too but he’s got work lined up the whole time so it will just be me on the road. I’ll be seeing a lot of friendly faces, though, and am going to spend a few days with my old friends Linda, Nora, and Laura while I’m on the other side of the Atlantic, which I am *really* looking forward to. I haven’t seen them for almost 8 months so it will be so nice to hang out in person and cook and eat a ton of good food.

Needless to say, with all the craziness of getting stuff packed and ready I’ve been trying out dinners that are super easy, quick, and flavorful—and this one pot Moroccan chicken fits that description perfectly. It’s made up of a homemade Moroccan spice blend of cinnamon, turmeric, coriander, spicy pepper, cumin, and allspice that gets rubbed all over a few chicken quarters and tossed with onions, garlic, ginger, potatoes, and cauliflower. The chicken is browned in the pot first to get the chicken fat flavor, then it’s removed and the onions are cooked a bit, then the remaining veggies are added and tossed together, and then the browned chicken quarters and placed on top and the lid goes on the pot. Everything then simmers together for a while (like 30-40 minutes) and if you use a good dutch oven or a tagine, the steam from the cooking process hits the lid and then drizzles back down into the pot, basting everything inside continually as it cooks. The result is an incredibly juicy, tender, rich, and succulent meal rich with the spiced flavor of Moroccan cooking. I think you’ll like it very much 🙂

A couple other things of note:

• I have a new fun freebie out for you guys, and you can grab it here! I did a Q&A with the incredibly insightful Lauren Michaels from Pinterest. I thought up the most useful + informative questions I could muster and threw them on over to her, and she answered with an incredible array of helpful tips and advice for making the most of your Pinterest game. I’m sharing the inside scoop with you guys for free, (YAY!!!) so make sure to snag it while it’s around!
• I’ll also be visiting Pinterest HQ on Thursday and will be instagram story-ing some fun behind-the-scenes if you want to follow along 🙂

Okay I think that’s all, folks! Have a great rest of your week and I’ll be back in 2 weeks with another recipe in store for y’all (and maybe even tales from the road)!

5 from 10 votes

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One Pot Meal Moroccan Chicken

A quick, simple, and delicious one pot meal that brings the exotic and warm spices of Morocco to a classic and comforting braised chicken. You can eat this as-is, or make a little rice or couscous to serve alongside it and soak up some of the tasty cooking juices (although a piece of crusty bread or naan will do the trick, too!)

Course Dinner

Cuisine Moroccan

Prep Time 20 minutes

Cook Time 1 hour

Total Time 1 hour 20 minutes

Servings 4 servings

Author Eva Kosmas Flores

Ingredients

One Pot Meal Moroccan Chicken

• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon turmeric
• 1 teaspoon ground coriander
• 3/4 teaspoon cayenne or aleppo pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon cumin
• 1/4 teaspoon allspice
• 2 pounds chicken leg quarters (aka thighs and drumsticks attached, bone in and skin on)
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 medium yellow onion (chopped)
• 2 cloves garlic (minced)
• 1-inch piece fresh ginger (peeled and minced)
• 3/4 pound potatoes (peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes)
• 3/4 pounds cauliflower (separated into roughly 1-inch floret bundles)
• 1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 1/2 cup vegetable or chicken stock

Optional

• 4 cups rice of couscous for serving

Instructions

Instructions

1. In a small bowl, mix together all of the spices.

2. Coat the chicken quarters in the olive oil, then coat them with half of the spice mixture.

3. Melt the butter in a large Dutch oven or tagine over medium low heat. Add the chicken and cook until golden brown on each side, about 7 to 10 minutes per side, working in batches if needed. The chicken will not be cooked through at this point and that is fine, you just want the skin to be golden. Remove the chicken from the pot and set aside on a large plate.

4. Add the onions to the pot and saute until softened and transparent, about 5 to 8 minutes.

5. Add the garlic and ginger and stir to combine. Continue cooking until very fragrant, about 3 to 5 minutes, stirring every minute.

6. Add the potatoes, cauliflower, lemon juice, and the remaining spice mix and stir until the vegetables are evenly coated in the spice mixture.

7. Add the vegetable stock and then place the chicken quarters on top of the vegetables. Cover with the lid, reduce heat to low, and allow to cook for 35 to 40 minutes, until the chicken is cooked through, tender, and it's juices run clear. Remove from heat, salt to taste if desired, and serve immediately.