A trip to Northern Africa

I think it was June last year when we received an unexpected package in the mail containing a beautiful North African cookbook! I was seriously so excited about it I wanted to make something from it that very night. It came from a friend who currently lives in North Africa and shares my love for cooking. Just reading through the book made me want to hop on a plane and visit a few friends of ours that are in that area. Over the next week or two I made a couple of the recipes and absolutely loved them. I found a lamb and prune tagine recipe in the book, but had chicken and not lamb on hand so I looked in another Mediterranean cookbook of mine and happen to find a chicken and prune tajine recipe, so I took a bit from each book and made a wonderful dish that I shared with Ryan's cousin who had recently had her first child. She loved it and had asked for the recipe, but I am just now getting around to writing down what I had done to the recipe to make it taste even better.

I actually made the recipe two nights in a row because I wasn't quite comfortable serving a dish to someone that I had not yet made for my family. Although I have done this in the past, this one was a bit unique, so I wanted to check it out first, besides I really wanted to try it myself. In making it the first night I realized that the cooking time for the chicken needed to be adjusted - it got a bit too dry and although the meal was incredibly flavorful, the chicken hadn't taken on as much of the flavor as I had hoped. So, I tried brining the chicken and that helped a ton. But I also was low on saffron and prunes after making it the first time so I added some turmeric and dates - very tasty!

Although I do not own a tagine/tajine - a domed clay pot, I was able to make this aromatic dish in a large saucepan on my stovetop. You'll want to start the brine in the morning if you plan to have this for dinner. Or sometimes I brine my chicken when I get it and then wrap it in smaller portions and freeze it. The recipe primarily comes from my Reader's Digest Mediterranean Cooking cookbook with a few ideas from my Medina Kitchen cookbook (the unexpected gift in the mail).


Chicken Tajine with Prunes
Tajine de poulet aux pruneaux
Brine:
1/2 cup sea salt
1/4 molasses
1 cup boiling water + more cold water and ice
1 whole cut-up chicken (bone-in)

Mix 1/2 cup of sea salt and 1/4 cup of molasses into 1 cup of boiling water until salt is completely dissolved. Add ice and 1 more cup of cold water, when brine is cool to the touch add chicken and fill with water until chicken is fully covered. Store in refrigerator for a 4-5 hours.

Ingredients:
Brined chicken (from above)
1-3 large onions, chopped
1-2 cloves of garlic, minced

1-2 Tablespoons olive oil
2 Tablespoons of butter
1 cinnamon stick
1/4 teaspoon saffron threads or 1/2 teaspoon turmeric*
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger*
freshly ground pepper
1 1/2 cups water
1 cup pitted prunes
1/4 cup whole dates, chopped
2 Tablespoons honey

2 Tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 Tablespoon sesame seeds
3/4 cup sliced almonds, toasted

Lightly cover the bottom of a large saucepan with olive oil and add butter, onions, garlic, and spices. Add chicken and cover with 1 1/2 cups water. Cover the pan and cook over low heat for 20-30 minutes, turning chicken halfway through. At 20 minutes you may want to remove smaller pieces of chicken to a plate, but continue cooking thicker breast pieces. After 30 minutes check chicken to make sure juices run clear and it is no longer pink. Remove chicken to plate and cover. Add the prunes and dates to the cooking liquid, cooking until softened - about 10-15 minutes. Add honey and lemon juice, reducing liquid by half. You can turn up the heat to medium to speed up the process or continue to cook on low. Return the chicken to the sauce and cook for an additional 10 minutes.

Couscous:
1 cup water
3/4 cup whole wheat couscous
1 Tablespoon ground flax seed*

For couscous, boil 1 cup of water and add 3/4 cup of whole wheat couscous and 1 Tablespoon ground flax seed. Remove from heat, cover and let sit for 5-10 minutes. Fluff with a fork before serving.

Serve over whole wheat couscous and sprinkle with sesame seeds and toasted almonds.

Side notes: If you choose not to brine your chicken, you will want to add salt at some point to the recipe. If, however, you do brine the chicken you should not need to add any additional salt. Both saffron and turmeric happen to be in my spice cupboard due to my love for cooking international dishes. Saffron is the more pricey of the two and the one called for in the original recipe. Turmeric can be used in it's place and will likely be cheaper. I have a huge package of turmeric that I found at an Indian grocery store and I keep it in my freezer. This

recipe calls for dry ground ginger, but if you have fresh, I bet it would be delicious! Grate about a teaspoon into the pan along with the onion and garlic and spices. The flax seed is totally optional, but I once bought a box of whole wheat couscous that contained flax, so I thought why not add it - you can never have too much fiber (well maybe some people can).


As always, enjoy!  And please forgive the look of the last few posts as they have added a an updated edit option, but it is not working as well as I had hoped:(

Favorite Comfort Food

With the chicken that I had left from making my own chicken stock I made one of our favorite comfort foods - chicken pot pie! Not the healthiest meal out there, but with only one crust it takes away a ton of the extra fat. Definitely not the healthiest meal of the week since we had coconut cream pie for dessert too. Ryan's birthday was Valentine's Day and he was out of town on business, so I finally got around to making his second favorite dessert (the other being - chocolate mousse pie, has been relegated to once a year and we had it for Christmas Eve).

In addition to the pot pie I made a hot chicken appetizer dip which we ate along with some other snacks for a snacky style lunch and made chicken quesadillas for lunch twice. So, out of that one chicken I got 10 pint size canning jars of stock plus 5 two cup Ziploc containers; one dinner; and about five lunches (counting the left-overs from the pot pie) for a family of four (with small eaters). Not to mention all the meals the stock will aid in making. Pretty good deal, huh?

Although I have tried different whole wheat crust recipes, I can't seem to find the one that I thought was rather decent. If you happen to have one that you like, please pass it along so that I can give it a try. I did find this one that looks interesting and would be worth a try. One of the reasons I love this recipe is that it is so easy and so quick to make. I have tried other pot pie recipes that were also very good, but a bit more time consuming, so I keep coming back to this one. The original recipe came from the box of the Pilsbury pie crust, but they no longer have the recipe on the box. Yes, I do sometimes use store bought pie crust. I guess it is one of those things that I don't particularly enjoy making. I just wish Pilsbury would start selling a whole wheat version - so that we could get a bit of health out of the pie crust too. Anyway, on to the recipe. UPDATE - I have finally found a whole wheat pie crust recipe that we actually like. See bottom of page for recipe.

Homemade Chicken Pot Pie
Ingredients:
1 pie crust (store bought or homemade - whichever you prefer)
1/3 cup butter
1 medium onion, chopped
1 large potato, chopped
1/3 cup white wheat flour (or all-purpose)
1 to 1 1/2 cups homemade chicken stock (or broth)
2/3 cup milk
2 1/2 to 3 cups shredded cooked chicken or turkey
2 cups (16 oz bag) frozen mixed vegetables
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Melt butter in large pan over medium heat. Add onion and potatoes and cook until tender.

Add flour to make a roux, cooking for a couple of minutes. Gradually stir in milk and then broth. If you use all-purpose flour, you will likely need more liquid and if you use white wheat you will need less. Stir until bubbly and thickened. Add salt and pepper at this time - if you salted your stock you will need less, whereas if you did not salt your broth you will need more. Sometimes I add a teaspoon of chicken boullion to give it some added flavor. I like lots of freshly ground pepper, but season to taste.

Add shredded chicken or meat and thawed veggie mix. Pour chicken mixture into 9 inch or 9.5 inch pie plate. 

Cover with pie crust and use your fingers to create a decorative edge. Cut a few slits in the top to vent and voila - you are ready to bake! Bake for 30-40 minutes, until crust is golden brown. Let stand at least five minutes before serving. You may want to put the pot pie on a cookie sheet or put the sheet on the rack below - mine has a tendency to overflow (even in the 9.5 inch pie plate)!

Side notes:  I have added mushrooms (to the step with the onions and potatoes), so if you like mushrooms - go ahead and add them to your potpie.  Thyme is probably my favorite herb, so it has been known to make it's way into my potpie from thyme to time:)  Feel free to add your favorite spice(s) to your pot pie.  Make it your own!

For a printable version of this recipe (without pictures) click here.

Did you try making the chicken stock yet? If you did, what did you do with the chicken meat?

UPDATE - Whole Wheat Pie Crust
1 3/4 cup Whole Wheat Pastry Flour (or spelt flour or a combination of both)
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup Palm Shortening or Butter (my preference is the palm shortening)
1/2 cup (or less) cold water

I use my food processor to cut the flour, salt, and shortening, but you could use a pastry blender or fork.  Again, I add the cold water slowly to my food processor until it forms a ball. If doing by hand, add water slowly until it forms a cohesive mass. With floured hands, make into a round ball and flatten on a floured pastry cloth or board. Roll out until desired thickness and large enough to cover your pot pie. Trim the edges and flute/pinch to form a decorative border. With the extra pie dough, you can always do something fun for dessert, like small fruit tarts like this. I used a muffin tin to form the tarts and baked at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes.