Dreaming of marrakesh (braised chicken with couscous)
Chicken second courses
On occasion we eat at a local Moroccan Restaurant that serves a family style feast. One of my favorite dishes is the Tagine of Chicken, Honey, and Prunes which is the inspiration for this dish. It has a lovely blend of sweet and savory, and is exotic enough to be special, but tame enough to be pretty universally appealing. I invited some apricots and oranges to the party to add a little extra flavor. I borrowed the Cook's Illustrated technique for cooking couscous (found in their Best International Recipes Cookbook), but used flavors to complement the braised chicken and dried fruit. Most of the ingredients can be found in the bulk bins, so if you don't have the spices, nuts, dried fruit, or couscous in your pantry you can buy just what you need to save on cost. Most of the work involved is at the front end with a short burst of activity at the end. There is about an hour of hands-off time in the middle allowing for clean up or other last minute party prep. The recipe looks long and intimidating, but is truly manageable. I've also made a half batch of the dish, so don't be afraid to scale down if you don't need as much food!
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