[in the kitchen] Baked Moroccan Chicken & Rice

This dish is a firm favourite on the regular rotation for the BE Hive. It came to us by a chance sighting on taste.com.au, and over time I have tweaked it into something a little different and perfected it to our preferences.

It works well for us to provide left overs for lunches the following day. It also freezes well to store a meal for those days that there are no left overs from the previous night for Mr BE to take to work. It is also a great dish to prepare when having guests over, it's easy to prepare, doesn't necessarily look too flash on the plate but the flavours are always a hit.

[Original Recipe Credit: Taste.com.au Baked Moroccan Chicken & Rice]

What's in it...

• 1 cup basmatti rice
• 1 onion, diced
• 1/2 green capsicum, diced
• 2 med tomatoes, diced
• juice of 1 lemon
• 1 1/4 cups chicken stock
• 500g chicken thighs, 2cm slices
• 1/2 cup apricot jam
• 2 tablespoons moroccan seasoning
• 1 generous teaspoon minced garlic
• 1 tablespoon olive oil

The original recipe included peas in the vegetable layer - the BEs hate peas... so I omit those... I have done versions that included beans, carrots & snow peas in the vegetable layer, this is handy for meals where you just want to serve the whole thing from one dish and forgo the steaming of veggies on the side.


Put it together...

1. Preheat oven to 220C.
2. Spread basmatti rice evenly in the base of a baking dish.
3. Spread diced onion, capsicum & tomatoes over the rice.
4. Combine the lemon juice & chicken stock, pour over the rice/vegetable mixture.
5. Combine the apricot jam, moroccan seasoning, garlic & olive oil in a bowl to make a glaze.
6. Coat the chicken strips with the glaze and lay on top of the rice/vegetable mixture in the baking dish. Spread any remaining glaze mixture on top of the chicken.
7. Place in the oven, uncovered for 35-40 mins or until chicken is cooked & rice has absorbed the liquid. Serve with steamed vegetables.

Visuals...

Putting it all together

Out of the oven & onto my plate... Mmmm