Two healthy dinners (Dukkah Crusted Chicken and Ras El Hanout Chicken)
So, as I mentioned in a precious post, I’m on a diet. As I also said, I don’t actually believe in dieting so I will just be watching the fat and sugar intake a bit more than usual for a couple of weeks. I wouldn’t want to do anything too drastic! So that is how I came to think about chicken for lean protein and grain salad for lunch boxes and side dishes. I’ve wanted to make this dukkah (pronounced doo-kah, an Egyptian mix) for around a year now and I only just got around to it. I’m so glad I did as it was stunning and I can’t wait to try it with goujons of fish, which I suspect may be even better. If you don’t want to shallow fry them (as you may be on a diet!), you can spray them with oil (I use a gardening spray, a new one…) to get a fine even mist and then bake them until golden instead – much healthier. I used smoked Maldon sea salt in this dukkah mix, which I picked up in my local health food shop today and the smoky flavour just came through but next time I will add a bit more. You could also get away with a little more fennel, particularly if you try fish. I served the goujons with some natural yoghurt mixed with mint and lemon thyme.
My local health food store is SMBS Foods in East Dulwich. It’s brilliant but it’s also extremely small and busy, especially on a Saturday afternoon. On my visit, the queue stretched right around the tiny shop and I picked up 3 extra items on my way to the checkout. ‘It’s all a ploy to get you to buy more’, according to the woman in front of me. I couldn’t resist buying this muesli bread (pictured below), which is a rye bread with added hazelnuts, oats and raisins. It’s actually really good toasted for breakfast, slightly sweet and crunchy. I also bought a packet of spelt spaghetti and some tofu. I’ve never tried tofu and I’m quite obviously not a vegetarian but after watching a programme about people with high amounts of soya products in their diet that are all over 100 years old I thought I’d give it a try!
The grilled chicken I made earlier in the week when I remembered an unopened bag of Ras El Hanout (a Moroccan spice blend meaning ‘head of the shop’) in the cupboard that I’ve been meaning to use up. I came up with a really simple recipe as I was very tired and not up to much chopping and the like. It’s a mix of the Ras El Hanout, a touch of smoked paprika for depth, a little crushed garlic and some yoghurt. I just mixed everything together and marinated the chicken in it for as long as I could bear to wait and then threaded it onto skewers before grilling until charred. It was delicious, succulent and juicy inside and charred and flavour-packed on the outside.
We ate the grilled chicken with some roasted buckwheat salad that I made earlier in the week. This was less successful than the chicken recipes. In fact, I’m not even sure that I like roasted buckwheat or Kasha. As Heidi suggests, it might be better to get the un-roasted version and toast it yourself so that you can control the intensity of the flavour. This ready-roasted stuff is way too strong. The ingredients that I had in the fridge led me to making some sort of tabbouleh with it but the grain was totally unsuitable and just overpowered everything. In the end though, mixed with the chicken and a generous helping of yoghurt and chilli, it was delicious.
Dukkah Crusted Chicken (serves 2)
2 chicken breasts, sliced into bite size pieces
100g hazelnuts
70g sesame seeds
3 tablespoons coriander seeds
1 tablespoon cumin seeds
1 teaspoon black peppercorns
1 teaspoon smoked (or regular) sea salt
1 teaspoon fennel seeds
1 egg, beaten
- Lightly toast the nuts (in a dry, heavy based pan) and then grind in a pestle and mortar or blender until chopped (not too fine, you don’t want a paste)
- Lightly toast the sesame seeds and add to the nuts
- Lightly toast the fennel, cumin and coriander seeds and the crush and crack lightly, add to the nuts
- Grind the peppercorns and add to the nut mix along with the salt
- Dip the chicken pieces first into the egg and then press them into the dukkah until thoroughly coated
- Shallow fry the pieces until crispy and golden brown on both sides (you can also bake the chicken if you spritz it lightly with oil first).
Ras El Hanout Chicken Skewers (serves 2)
2 chicken breasts, cut into bite size pieces
2 cloves garlic, crushed
3 tablespoons ras el hanout
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
250ml natural yoghurt
Fresh coriander and lemon wedges, to serve.
- Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl and leave to marinate for as long as possible (ideally overnight). If you want to use any lemon in the marinade, put this in half an hour before you are ready to cook.
- Thread onto skewers and grill until lightly charred on all sides.
- Serve with lemon wedges and lots of chopped fresh coriander.
I also sprinkled some finely chopped spring onions on top of the goujons. Yum.
Category: Gluten-free, Grains, Healthy, Main Dishes, Meat, Starters 18 comments »
March 9th, 2008 at 6:14 pm
I could not resist buying a little tin of dukha the other day, but other than dipping, I did not know what to do with it and your chicken recipe sounds delicious.
March 9th, 2008 at 10:02 pm
That chicken looks great with the different spices. That bread also looks good. I love hazelnuts. Anything that has hazelnuts in it, I will eat.
March 11th, 2008 at 10:24 am
Nina – I’m really glad I gave you another idea for the dukkah. I also love the dipping though! It’s great too sprinkled on grilled meat kabobs.
Jessica – The bread is really good actually, although it is a little crumbly, when you toast it it holds together nicely.
March 11th, 2008 at 12:33 pm
Hi helen,
This sounds like a very interesting and wonderful way to cook chicken; wonderful list of spices. Hope you enjoy the tofu and thanks for stopping by my blog!
Pix
March 11th, 2008 at 2:39 pm
Recipes look good ty for sharing ill have to try some of these
March 11th, 2008 at 3:54 pm
oh my goodness, that looks so good! that muesli bread looks awesome too — i love those crazy health-food-store finds! i used to get the best unsweeted licorice at the one near my apartment in law school — so yummy!
March 11th, 2008 at 3:58 pm
Nyte – The chicken recipes are perfect for sharing and really easy to cook in large batches – very important!
Katy – Thank you. The bread is lovely and I bought way too many items in the health food store. I love Panda licorice – which I think is unsweetened? In fact, you have given me a craving, I might have to pick some up at the weekend!
March 12th, 2008 at 2:00 pm
Helen,
I saw a food show featuring Dukka where bowls of the mix were offered w/ oiland bread for dipping. I love communal eating.
Just make sure the bread is cut into small pieces…we don’t want any double-dipping!
March 12th, 2008 at 2:03 pm
Ha ha! You are right Peter – double dipping is sinful!
March 16th, 2008 at 4:04 am
Great Chicken recipe! I also love the following (quick, healthy)-http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,,FOOD_9936_70281,00.html
March 24th, 2008 at 7:00 am
nice work, man
March 27th, 2008 at 10:31 pm
Love the ras el hanout chicken, I have this spice here that a friend sent me from England and will sure try this recipe!
March 28th, 2008 at 2:42 am
That looks so scrumptious!
January 22nd, 2009 at 4:18 am
This looks absolutely AMAZING. it’s much more complicted than the chicken I generally cook, but I think it would be worth it. It looks delicious.
March 9th, 2009 at 3:02 pm
Thank you for the Ras El Hanout chicken recipe, just loved it. So happy to find such an easy way of using this spice blend, look forward to more. Can you give me a good recipe for roasted artichokes, would the Ras spice blend be an appropriate marinade with olive oil do you think ?
March 9th, 2009 at 3:09 pm
Hi LIN, do you mean jerusalem artichokes (sunchokes?) or globe artichokes? I don’t think ras el hanout is going to suit in either case really, as artichokes have a delicate flavour, I think the spices would overwhelm it. GLobe artichokes are more suited to flavours like lemon, garlic, parsley – fresh flavours. If you are looking for more ras el hanout inspiration, try the food blog search in the right hand column of this site, I think you will probably find loads of inspiration! I am so glad you enjoyed the chicken too
Good luck!
July 15th, 2009 at 1:46 pm
wow they look delicious!!! thanks for sharing the recipe!
May 22nd, 2010 at 5:49 pm
Hi Lin, thanks, Ras El Hanout recipe is really helpful. I have my sister-in-law coming tomorrow and wanted to try out this recipe. Looking forward to tasting it tomorrow!