Tuesday 9 June 2009

Recipe - Harissa Marinated Chicken Breast with Minty Couscous


Time to get back from the navel gazing arty-farty presentations and photography and actually produce a proper recipe again.

This recipe ticks many of the boxes for me. It contains chicken, couscous, is fairly quick and easy to make and most of all - it is tasty as hell.

You could eat this for dinner or pack it up in your lunchbox, it is a fairly versatile dish.

If you make an extra chicken breast you can slice it up too and use to make breakfast/lunch sandwiches out of it. A bit of mango chutney on a slice of bread topped with some of this chicken and you're a long way towards a very nice sandwich.

Let's head over to the recipe...

Ingredients (per person)
Chicken
1 bone- and skinless chicken breast
Harissa paste

Couscous
Couscous, enough for one portion according to the packaging
Water, enough for one portion of couscous according to the packaging
Pine nuts
Cherry tomatoes, quartered
Mint leaves, washed and roughly torn
Lemon juice

Method
Spread the chicken breast with harissa paste, both top and bottom. Cover and put in the fridge for at least an hour.

Heat the oven to 200c. Put the chicken on some lightly oiled tin foil on a baking sheet. Pop in the oven for about 20 minutes, or until done. Once done, remove and let rest for 5 minutes before slicing.

In the meantime prepare the couscous as per the instructions on the packaging.

While the couscous is preparing heat a non-stick pan on a medium heat. Add the pine nuts and cook whilst shaking until they start to brown. Remove from the heat and chop them coarsely.

Once the couscous is done mix in the mint, tomatoes, pine nuts and drizzle well with lemon juice.

Serve the couscous with the chicken on top.

Enjoy!

6 comments:

  1. Harissa and minty couscous - lol - yes! I'm loving this combination.

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  2. Darius my friend, really glad to see that you're back visiting and that you enjoyed the recipe!

    // Mike

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  3. FMTY: Couscous rocks! It's very versatile and you can freestyle it quite a bit. Serve it hot, serve it cold, it doesn't matter.

    I hope you liked the recipe and that you'll come back soon!

    // Mike

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  4. Love the harrissa marinade idea I've never thought of using it that way normally just have it as a condiment on the side. This is a must try. and am already a huge couscous fan :)

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  5. goodshoeday - I think it works really nice as a marinade. It's also quite nice to brush on meat just after it's been cooked and is sitting resting. I'm glad that I managed to give you some inspiration to try a new thing!

    As I said in reply to an earlier comment - Couscous rocks. I've been a big fan since the first time I tried it.

    // Mike

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Please leave a comment. Positive or negative - all comments are welcome and useful. I do enjoy hearing what you think of my posts, what is good and what needs improving so please post away.

// Mike