Chicken Fillet with North African Flavours

Chicken Fillet with North African Flavours

Serves: 4
Preparation Time:  5 minutes
Cooking Time: 20 minutes

Don’t think only red meat goes with red wine. The spices here dictate the food match. However, if you prefer a red meat, try spicing lamb backstrap and cooking in the same way as the chicken.

Ingredients:

1 teaspoon olive oil
4 chicken breast fillets or 8 chicken thigh fillets
1 teaspoon Moroccan spice
salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
1 onion chopped roughly
2 carrots, peeled and chopped roughly
4 cloves garlic, minced
375mls chicken stock
150mls verjuice or white wine,
harissa (optional)
frozen peas
400g can chick peas, drained and rinsed
6 green onions
1¼ cup chopped fresh mint

Method:

1. Place large frying pan over high heat. Meanwhile sprinkle chicken with spice, salt and pepper. Add oil to pan and brown chicken fillets on both sides. Remove from pan, add onion and carrots and stir over heat for a minute or two, add garlic and stir again. Pour in chicken stock, verjuice and harissa (if using). Stir. Replace chicken fillets on top. Cover and reduce heat to a gentle simmer.
2. After 10 minutes add frozen peas, replace lid and cook a further 5 minutes. Add chickpeas, stir through green onions and mint, check seasoning and adjust if necessary.
3. Serve with extra harissa on the side, if desired.

Verjuice — by definition, is the acidic juice made from unripe fruit, primarily grapes. It can also be made from crab apples, unripe plums or gooseberries (in England a ’fake’ verjuice was often made from mashed sorrel and water).  Its name derives from the French ’vert’ (green) ’jus’ (juice). As verjuice has traditionally been made from white and red grapes, leaving the juice on the skins long enough to colour it, the ’vert’ refers to youth (unripe), rather than colour.

Recipe from Balance. Matching Food and Wine. What Works and Why by Lyndey Milan and Colin Corney — grab your copy online for $35.00 AUD by clicking here!