Start this the night before by sprinkling 3 chicken breasts (each one cut into 3 pieces) with a chopped up garlic clove, a scant tablespoon of chopped fresh mint and parsley, 2 tablespoons of olive oil, a teaspoon each of dried ginger, ground coriander and cinnamon, half a teaspoon each of turmeric and chilli flakes and the juice of half a lemon. Put this in the fridge, covered.
At the same time, steep 200g prunes in 2 teaspoons of honey and enough boiling water to cover. Leave this at room temperature.
The next day, preheat your oven to 180 degrees, then fry 2 sliced onions with 2 crushed cloves of garlic in some olive oil and a little salt. Use a hob-friendly, ovenproof pan for this. When the onion is soft, add the chicken breasts to the pan, and turn the heat up to colour. Add a little more oil if necessary. Sprinkle with a some nutmeg and black pepper. Once both sides of the chicken breasts are golden, add a sliced red pepper and a sliced yellow pepper. Stir well, then add half a pint of chicken stock (from a stock cube is fine). Bring to the boil, then put a lid on and pop the casserole into a medium oven (180 degrees) for half an hour.
After 30 minutes, add the zest of a lemon and and the prunes. Put it back in the oven for a further 10 minutes. After that, stir in some fresh mint, parsley and a couple of handfuls of chopped spinach. Leave it to sit for a couple of minutes, stir again and check for salt and then serve with couscous or rice and a further sprinkling of zest and parsley.
What a lovely dish. All those gorgeous Moroccan flavours. I’m hungry just looking at the photos.
Thank you! I was just thinking that it tasted nicer than it looked. Even the kids liked it, although they did prod the prunes rather suspiciously at first.
Mmmmm! Looks lovely – really fresh and vibrant. Suddenly lunchtime seems a very long way off…..
But dinner is here now!
That looks so delicious!
It was! Better than the sum of its parts!
Your chicken with prunes sounds terrific.
Thank you! We loved it!