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Moroccan chicken with lemon couscous

The Good Food team's Moroccan chicken with Halal chicken: honey-glazed breast strips fried golden, then simmered with cinnamon, cumin, tomatoes, Halal or vegetable stock, green beans and lemon, served with lemony couscous.

Moroccan · Main · Easy · 4 plates · 30 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 dish is 4 chicken breasts, which are Halal only from Halal-slaughtered birds, simmered with 150 ml chicken stock, which is a chicken product.

Halal-critical ingredients

• Chicken breasts: 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: Bought chicken stock is a chicken product, and the UK's mainstream stock cubes contain uncertified chicken or meat fat. Use a Halal-certified chicken stock or a vegan vegetable stock. See Stock cubes.

Ingredients

Couscous

• 250 g couscous
• 1 lemon, zest and juice (half for the couscous)
• 400 ml boiling water

Chicken

• 1 tsp olive oil
• 1 tbsp clear honey
• 4 Halal skinless, boneless chicken breasts, in large strips
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 400 g can chopped tomatoes
• 150 ml Halal-certified chicken stock, or vegetable stock
• 200 g fine green beans, trimmed

Method

1. Soak the couscous. Put the couscous, half the lemon zest and half the juice in a medium bowl and pour over 400 ml boiling water. Cover with cling film and leave to soak while you cook the chicken.
2. Fry the chicken. Heat the oil in a large non-stick frying pan. Drizzle the honey and some seasoning over the chicken and fry over a medium heat for 5 to 6 minutes until golden.
3. Simmer. Mix in the spices, then the tomatoes, stock, beans and the rest of the lemon zest and juice. Bring to the boil and simmer, uncovered, for 8 to 10 minutes or until the beans are tender.
4. Serve. Fork through the couscous to fluff it up, then serve with the chicken.

Allergens

gluten (couscous)

How this recipe was researched

Method adapted from BBC Good Food's 'Moroccan chicken with lemon couscous' by the Good Food team, tagged Moroccan (serves 4: 250 g couscous with half the zest and juice of a lemon covered with 400 ml boiling water and left to soak under cling film; 4 skinless, boneless chicken breasts in large strips drizzled with 1 tbsp honey and seasoned, fried in 1 tsp olive oil in a large non-stick pan over a medium heat 5 to 6 minutes until golden; 1 tsp each ground cinnamon and cumin mixed in, then a 400 g can of chopped tomatoes, 150 ml chicken stock, 200 g trimmed fine green beans and the rest of the lemon zest and juice, brought to the boil and simmered uncovered 8 to 10 minutes until the beans are tender; the couscous fluffed with a fork and served with the chicken). We specified Halal chicken breasts and a Halal-certified or vegetable stock; the last step is split at its natural break. Nothing else needed changing. Timings follow the published technique rather than a kitchen test.

Photograph from our ingredient library: steamed couscous with vegetables, not the finished dish from this recipe.