isithalal.food · Recipes

Harira and chicken soup with Halal chicken

The Good Food team's North African-inspired harira and chicken soup: browned Halal chicken thighs simmered with root vegetables, warm spices, harissa, tomatoes, green lentils and Halal or vegetable stock, finished with lemon.

North African · Main · Easy · 5 bowls · 80 min

Each method follows published technique for the dish, and every Halal substitution is checked against the ingredient pages we cite. Photographs come from our ingredient library rather than the finished dish.

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Why Halal checks matter here

The soup is made with 4 chicken thighs, which are Halal only from Halal-slaughtered birds, and 2 chicken stock cubes; the yogurt served on top needs a gelatin check.

Halal-critical ingredients

• Chicken thighs: Chicken is a Halal bird, but slaughter decides, and chicken without a Halal mark doesn't say how the bird was slaughtered. Buy the chicken from a Halal butcher or in a certified pack. See Chicken.
• Chicken stock cubes: The UK's mainstream chicken stock cubes contain uncertified chicken or chicken fat. Use Halal-certified chicken stock cubes or vegan vegetable ones. See Stock cubes.
• Natural yogurt: Plain yogurt is milk fermented with cultures, but gelatin turns up in set, low-fat and dessert yogurts. Choose a yogurt with no gelatin on the label. See Yogurt.

Ingredients

Soup

• 3 tbsp olive oil, plus extra to drizzle
• 4 Halal boneless, skinless chicken thighs
• 1 leek, washed and finely sliced
• 4 fat celery sticks, chopped small
• 3 large carrots, chopped small
• 2 big parsnips, peeled and chopped small
• small pack coriander, stalks finely chopped, leaves kept to serve
• 1 tbsp cumin seeds
• 2 tsp ground cumin
• 2 tsp ground coriander
• 2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 2 tsp ground turmeric
• 2 tbsp harissa
• 2 × 400 g cans chopped tomatoes
• 2 Halal-certified chicken stock cubes, or vegetable ones, crumbled
• 85 g raw green lentils
• 1 lemon, zest and juice
• 1 tbsp golden caster sugar

To serve

• to serve natural yogurt (no gelatine)
• to serve toast and hummus

Method

1. Brown the chicken. Heat half the oil in a frying pan, season the chicken and brown it really well on both sides. Lift onto a plate. Tip a mug of water into the pan and simmer, scraping up the browned bits, then pour the liquid into a measuring jug.
2. Soften the vegetables. Put the rest of the oil, the vegetables and the coriander stalks in a big saucepan and cook gently for about 5 minutes until softened. Stir in the spices, turn up the heat and cook for a few minutes.
3. Simmer. Stir in the harissa, then the tomatoes, chicken, stock cubes and lentils. Top up the jug of pan juices to 500 ml with water and add it too. Bring to a simmer, cover and cook for 30 minutes.
4. Shred and serve. Lift out the chicken, shred it finely with two forks and return it to the pan with the lemon zest and juice and the sugar. Season, then ladle into bowls with a spoonful of yogurt and the coriander leaves, and serve with toast spread with hummus and drizzled with oil.

Allergens

celery, milk (yogurt, to serve), sesame (hummus, to serve)

How this recipe was researched

Method adapted from BBC Good Food's 'Moroccan harira & chicken soup' by the Good Food team, which describes it as North African-inspired (serves 5: 4 seasoned boneless, skinless chicken thighs browned well on both sides in half of 3 tbsp olive oil and set aside, the pan deglazed with a mug of water and the liquid kept; a finely sliced leek, 4 fat celery sticks, 3 large carrots and 2 big parsnips, all chopped small, and the finely chopped stalks of a small pack of coriander softened about 5 minutes in the rest of the oil; 1 tbsp cumin seeds and 2 tsp each ground cumin, coriander, cinnamon and turmeric cooked a few minutes over a higher heat; 2 tbsp harissa, 2 × 400 g cans chopped tomatoes, the chicken, 2 crumbled chicken stock cubes and 85 g raw green lentils stirred in, with the pan juices topped up to 500 ml with water; covered and simmered 30 minutes; the chicken shredded with two forks and returned with the zest and juice of a lemon and 1 tbsp golden caster sugar, seasoned; served with yogurt, the coriander leaves, and toast spread with hummus and drizzled with oil). We specified Halal chicken thighs and Halal-certified or vegetable stock cubes, and flagged the yogurt's label; nothing else needed changing. Timings follow the published technique rather than a kitchen test.

Photograph from our ingredient library: a bowl of harira with dates, not the finished dish from this recipe.