Moroccan chicken with couscous and caramelized carrots

One night, I was really struggling to find something to make for dinner. I was trying to think of exotic places and spices. Then, I wondered if I could find some kind of Moroccan spice mix on-line. Sure enough, I did. So this is not a recipe as such. Just a spice mix.

Ingredients:

  • 1 teaspoon ground cumin. 
  • 1 teaspoon ground ginger. 
  • 1 teaspoon salt. 
  • 3/4 teaspoon black pepper. 
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon. 
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground coriander. 
  • 1/2 teaspoon cayenne.
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice. 
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves.
  • Olive oil.
  • 4 breasts of boneless, skinless chicken.
  • Couscous.
  • Toasted pistachios (optional).
  • Carrots, sliced.
  • Brown sugar.
  • Butter.
  • Salt, pepper

Instructions:

  • Mix the first 9 ingredients (spices) in a bowl.
  • Add olive oil. Enough to turn it the spices into a liquidy paste.
  • Place 4 chicken breasts in a pyrex-style dish.
  • Pour spice mixture over the chicken.
  • Pat the spice paste into the chicken, flip the breast over a few times etc. Basically, the idea is to get the chicken well-coated.
  • Let that sit in the fridge for a couple of hours.
  • Boil the sliced carrots in a pot, until they are almost done.
  • Barbecue chicken breasts as you would normally. The oil will help make the chicken crispy.
  • While the chicken is cooking on the barbecue, caramelize the carrots in a frying pan, using brown sugar and butter.
  • Make the couscous according the the instructions on the box (5 minutes).
  • It's tempting to fancy up the couscous, because it's otherwise pretty plain, but the chicken spices and the sweet carrots offer enough for the senses. You can keep the couscous plain by just adding salt. But if you really want to dress it up a bit, add toasted pistachios.
  • Slice the chicken breasts in lengths, and serve over a bed of couscous, with carrots off to the side of the plate.