What's 4 Dinner, by Marie: Moroccan Chicken with Olives

A great weekend meal

Included in this recipe instructions is how to cut up a whole chicken. I think I will post that tutorial separately at some point, but you can also buy your chicken already cut into pieces. I prefer thighs, but you can use the parts you like best.

This is a weekend meal. For those of you that have been following my cooking travails, weekend meals can use more than 60 minutes of your time to prepare. Weeknight meals are always 60 minutes or less. :) Allow 90 minutes if you cut up your chicken, 2 hours if you don't. I cooked from 4:50 till 6:30.

Large roasting chicken 3.5 - 4 lb.
2.5 Tablespoons oil
2 onions, sliced
S&P
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon paprika
1 onion, finely chopped
1/2 lb. green or black olives simple canned or specialty olives - see note below
Juice of 1/2 lemon, or more
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Wash chicken and dry it off. I cut mine up into pieces to shorten cooking time. Original recipe calls for the chicken to remain whole.

Instructions say---> Heat oil in large saucepan. Add about 3/4 cup water very gradually. stirring vigorously.

OK, stop right there!! I knew this was a mistake, but I followed the instructions here. Hot oil.. add water??? I might have gotten about a tablespoon of water in the pot when it erupted into a fountain of oily sparks shooting all over the stove, the cutting boards, the wall and me. Stirring vigorously? Yeah, as the hot oil scalds your arms!! I waited about 2 full minutes before I could get close enough to get a lid on the pot to contain the mess that was spewing around my kitchen! So, instead, do as follows:

Heat oil in pot, add sliced onions and spices (1/2 t salt), stirring well. Add water to pot. Stirring. Lay the chicken on top. Cook over low heat, covered for 40 minutes (if cut-up chicken is used, 60 minutes if whole), turning the chicken frequently.

After the initial cooking time, taste the gravy. Add salt if necessary (I added another 1/2 t) and the finely chopped onion. cook for an additional 30 minutes. At this time, start your rice or couscous.

I used canned black olives, which aren't very salty. You may use green olives, or specialty olives, the kind that come with pits still in, often times in the bulk section of your store where you can scoop up many different varieties of wonderful olives. If green or specialty olives are used, pit them, then put them in a pan, cover with cold water, bring to a boil, leave for one minute. Drain off water and repeat the process. This will remove excess salt. Add the olives to the pan in the last few minutes, just to warm.

Just before serving, squeeze lemon juice over the dish ( I added lemon juice to the sauce before spooning over the chicken and rice). Serve with white rice or couscous.

From - A Book of Middle Eastern Food by Claudia Roden, 1968

Getting ready to cook. Wash the chicken and pat dry.

Oil in the pot.

Sliced the onions and prepare the spices.

Let's cut up the chicken. It's SO much easier than most people think. First, cut off the legs and thighs. Leave them together.

Remove the wings too. Just like the legs, if you bend them back, the joint will pop out. Cut between the two pieces of the joint, easy clean cut.

Remove excess fat.

Now it is just an open cavity.

Cut the breasts from the back. This is the thinnest part, no bones.

One side cut open.

Now the other side, separating the top from bottom.

Top half is the breasts, both. Cut down the middle into two breasts. Breast bone is hardest part, but a good sharp knife will do it.

Now, two breasts and the back.

This is the back. I'm going to throw it into the pot with everything else. If you cut up many chickens over time, toss the backs into the bag in the freezer and make chicken soup or stock from them. It's like free soup! Soup from leftovers.