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Sunday, July 13, 2008

Easy Moroccan Chicken with Sweet Potato and Garlic Mash


...Does what it says on the tin. Chicken's one of those meats that lends itself to being marinated the hell out of, and this is one of my favourite 'easy' recipes - perfect when you don't have much time, but want to create something impressive.

Serves two.
You will need:
Free Range Chicken Breasts, skin on, please.
Marinade: A couple of teaspoons of turmeric, ground coriander, a good chunk of chopped fresh ginger, some chilli flakes (as many as you like), a dash of lemon juice, a little olive oil, and a little ground black pepper and some salt.


1. Firstly, make some slashes in the chicken breast, and cover liberally in the marinade above and leave to rest in a large dish or bowl for at least an hour. The longer, the better.


Meanwhile, you can make the mash:
Peel four large redskin sweet potatoes, and chop into roast-sized chunks. Arrange in a roasting dish with a good drizzle of olive oil, a sprinkle of good salt and a little fresh Rosemary. Add the whole cloves of garlic, and make sure the skins are left on.

Roast the sweet potato and garlic for about 30 minutes; they will turn pulpy when done.
Then, whack the chicken breasts under a hot grill and cook until done. When the meat is ready and resting, you can pull the veg from the oven, place in a bowl and mash. Pop the garlic from thier jackets and work this into the sweet, orange mash.

Arrange as you like and you're done.

Not only does this meal look like a lot of effort but if you're a garlic lover (who isn't?) it's heavenly. The sweet mash compliments the sweet notes in the chicken marinade, and isn't too heavy a meal either. As a beer match I chose William's Red, a fruity- peppery, full-on beer that is robust enough to take on all that garlic and spice and still come through.


This recipe was inspired by A Merrier World's campaign to heighten awareness of the importance of buying free-range chicken. For the record, I buy my chicken at Hunt's Game & Poultry in Leeds Kirkgate Market. We all know the importance of buying free-range meat, not just from a moral standpoint but from a quality one, too. It simply tastes better, and the people that produce free-range meat - and independent food and drink producers in general - need our support wherever possible. Without them, we'd be in a really depressing state.

4 comments:

Polyxena said...

This sounds great - free range chicken plus mash and a lot of other wonderful flavours

Anonymous said...

That's a great recipe, Leigh! Thanks for taking part in Let Them Eat Chicken.

Anonymous said...

Good choice of ale in my book, quite fruity from what I remember. It's bottle conditioned too it may be a good one to culture up if it's the primary strain.

This may sound odd but I enjoy roasting sweet potatoes and then mashing them with cheddar, seasoned foodies may well turn their noses up at it but the combination of sweet and cheesy really pushes my buttons. It possibly has something to do with my long standing love of cheese and sweet pickle.

Leigh said...

john - not at all; that's a great idea, i'll certainly try that. like you say, i would imagine it works, sweet and sharp is a great flavour!!