Moroccan Chicken

This is one of my favourite recipes at the moment - it's great for cold winter days, really warming, and full of loads of veggies! It's a slow cooker recipe (crock pot for all you Americans!)

Ingredients:
1 tbsp oil
1 onion thinly sliced
1 crushed garlic clove
2 carrots thinly sliced
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground turmeric
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
425g/15oz tin of chickpeas
350g/12oz sweet potatoes cut into cubes
450ml/2 cups chicken stock
finely grated rind of 1 lemon
1 tbsp lemon juice
8 skinned chicken thighs

Method:

1. Heat the oil in a large saucepan, add onion and garlic, cook for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally until beginning to turn golden.

2. Stir in the carrots, then the salt, turmeric, cinnamon, ginger and pepper. Add the chickpeas, sweet potatoes, stock and lemon rind. Bring just to the boil and transfer to the slow cooker.

3. Arrange chicken on top of vegetables, pushing it gently into the liquid

4. Cover and cook on LOW for 6-8 hours. Stir in the lemon juice just before serving.

5. Serve with heaps of fluffy couscous with some fresh mint stirred into it.

(Serves 4)

Other suggestions:

This works well in a normal oven too - follow the recipe as above but place it in a casserole dish instead of the slow cooker. Add some extra liquid so that all the meat and veg is just covered. Cook it for an hour and a half on 180C (350F). You may want to add some cornflour for the last 20-30 minutes to thicken it up a bit.

I've tried the following variations with success:

• tinned green lentils instead of chickpeas
• adding other root vegetables instead of chickpeas, such as potato or parsnip
• you may only need 1 thigh per person if they are big, or chicken breasts work as well
• you may not need the salt depending on how salty your stock is
• BUT don't leave out the sweet potato, its not the same without it

Enjoy!