Bring back the dinner party. Not the 'three course plus cheeseboard' ordeal (but yes, to cheese please). We're talking the easy, 'you must give me this recipe', throw it in the oven dish, leaving you more time to spend with friends.
This chicken and apricot tagine takes 15mins to prep and just 50mins total cook time. It'll taste like it's been blipping away for ages, though.
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Yields:
4 serving(s)
Prep Time:
15 mins
Cook Time:
50 mins
Total Time:
1 hr 5 mins
Cal/Serv:
442
Ingredients
1Tbsp.
oil
2 onions, finely sliced
1 garlic clove, crushed
2.5cm piece fresh root ginger, peeled and grated
1tsp.
ground cumin
1 1/2tsp ground cinnamon
500g
skinless and boneless chicken thigh fillets, chopped into large chunks
400g
tin chopped tomatoes
250ml
chicken stock
100g
ready-to-eat dried apricots, halved
1Tbsp.
runny honey
100g
giant couscous
Large handful coriander, roughly chopped
50g
flaked almonds
Directions
Step 1In a large pan, heat the oil over medium heat and gently fry onions until soft, about 8min. Add the garlic, ginger and spices and cook for 1min until fragrant.
Step 2Add chicken thighs to the pan and fry until browned – about 5min.
Step 3Add the tomatoes, stock, apricots and honey and bring to the boil. Reduce heat to a gentle simmer, cover pan with a lid and cook for 30min, stirring occasionally, until the chicken thighs are cooked through.
Step 4Stir in the couscous and bubble for 6min, until al dente. Scatter over the coriander and almonds and serve.
Chicken thigh fillets are a cheap and tasty alternative to chicken breasts. Chicken thighs, like any dark meat, have more flavour than chicken breast, but also because they aren't as lean as chicken breast they are better suited to longer cooking.
We recommend serving this dish with flatbread and yogurt.
There are many ways you could go when pairing a wine with this dish. Here are some of our top choices…
Daylesford’s sister brand Léoube makes exceptionally food-friendly rosés that certainly shouldn’t be saved exclusively for summer. This blush blend has inviting aromas of peach and apricot, with a velvety texture and a thread of acidity running through each sip – which works well to lift the dish.
And just because we’re talking about chicken, doesn’t mean we have to rule out red. You could try a Moroccan or Lebanese red, although these can be harder to find. Alternatively, a light pinot noir, or a young, fresh crianza like this would step up to the job. This one is richly spiced and full-flavoured, just like the tagine. Cheers!
An experienced and highly skilled team of food writers, stylists and digital content producers, the Good Housekeeping Cookery Team is a close-knit squad of food obsessives. Cookery Editor Emma Franklin is our resident chilli obsessive and barbecue expert, who spends an inordinate amount of time on holidays poking round the local supermarkets seeking out new and exciting foods. Senior Cookery Writer Alice Shields is a former pastry chef and baking fanatic who loves making bread and would have peanut butter with everything if she could. Her favourite carb is pasta, and our vibrant green spaghetti is her weeknight go-to. Lover of all things savoury, Senior Cookery Writer Grace Evans can be found eating crispy corn and nocellara olives at every opportunity, and will take the cheeseboard over dessert any time (though she cannot resist a slice of tres leches cake). With a wealth of professional kitchen know-how, culinary training and years of experience between them, they are all dedicated to ensuring every Good Housekeeping recipe is the best it can be, so you can trust they’ll work (and if they don’t – we’ll have the answer for why*) every time (*90% of the time the answer is: “buy an separate oven thermometer”!).
