Now is the time to give this Roasted Moroccan Chicken Dinner a try! A mix of chicken breasts and chicken thighs with potatoes, apricots all wrapped up in the infused spices of Morocco. A great make ahead dish that you can prepare in the advance and pop in the fridge until roasting time. Bring the heat of the North Africa to your dinner table.
Have you ever cooked any kind of Moroccan food? Well, if not, now is your chance to dive in and see what’s it’s all about.
What are Moroccan Flavours & Spices
So many different spices are used in Moroccan cooking and here’s a few of the common ones that you will all be familiar with already.
- cinnamon
- cumin
- turmeric
- ginger
- paprika
- cloves
And here’s a few more that might be new to you.
- saffron
- fennel
- anise
- fenegreek
- caraway
Using Moroccan Spices
Of course, like all cuisines, there’s a whole lot more to it. As well, not all these spices are used in everyday cooking.
This dish, for example, only uses a fraction of all those spices to bring it together.
After living here in Spain for 24 years now, I’ve learned to use so many of these spices in cooking with hit and miss results. Thankfully, this dish was a hit….haha!
My first introduction to Moroccan cooking was through the Moro Cookbook. Admittedly, I only ever cooked a handful of recipes from that book. Nonetheless a great capture of where Andalucia, Spain meets Morocco in cooking.
This is a great dinner if you want to break out of the norm of what you usually put on the dinner table. Don’t be scared of trying new things and switching up your dinner rotation from time to time. This is an honest to goodness crowd pleaser that your family and your guests will love.
Here’s Some More Fantastic Moroccan Inspired Dishes
Roasted Moroccan Chicken
Ingredients
- 2 lb Chicken I used two chicken breast and 4 chicken thighs with skin on
- 4 red potatoes cut into quarters
- 1 large white onion roughly cut
- 1/4 Cup olive oil
- 2 Tablespoons honey
- 2 Teaspoons cumin
- 2 Teaspoons turmeric
- 1 Teaspoon cinnamon
- 4 cloves Garlic roughly chopped
- 1/2 Cup dried apricots
- 1/2 Cup pistachios roughly chopped
- 1/2 Cup white wine
- Small bunch of cilantro roughly chopped.
- Salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- In a small bowl, combine the olive oil, honey, cumin, turmeric, cinnamon, garlic and salt. Stir to combine and set aside
- In a deep sided large roasting dish, add the chicken, potatoes and onions. Pour over mixture, reserving about one tablespoon. Make sure all the chicken and potatoes are coated well with the oil mixture. With the reserved oil mixture, add the apricots and set aside.
- Roast the chicken for about 30 minutes. Remove from oven and add in the wine and apricots and roast for a further 20 minutes or so until the chicken is just cooked and potatoes are tender.
- Remove from oven and top with the pistachios and cilantro to serve.
*A note on times provided: appliances vary, any prep and/or cook times provided are estimates only.
Looked fantastic when I served it, but found it oily and lacking depth of flavour. I marinated it all day, maybe it needs overnight.