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Halal-conscious recipe

Moroccan chicken with sweet potato mash

The Good Food team's Moroccan chicken with Halal chicken: ras el hanout-rubbed breasts browned, then simmered with onion, garlic, Halal or vegetable stock, honey, lemon and green olives, served over sweet potato mash.

  • Cuisine Moroccan
  • Meal Main
  • Difficulty Easy
  • Yield 4 plates
  • Time 35 min
  • Last updated

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.

Printable view
Green beans, carrots and potatoes layered in a metal tagine base, ready to cook
Photograph from our ingredient library: vegetables layered in a tagine before cooking, not the finished dish from this recipe.

Photo: Ridouan Red · CC BY-SA 4.0

Why Halal checks matter here

The dish is 4 chicken breasts, which are Halal only from Halal-slaughtered birds, simmered in 200 ml chicken stock, which is a chicken product.

Chicken breasts rubbed with ras el hanout are browned, then simmered in a quick sauce of onion, garlic, stock, honey, lemon juice and green olives until it turns syrupy, and served sliced over sweet potato mash with plenty of coriander. The source tags it Moroccan. Two things need a Halal source: the chicken, and the stock, for which a Halal-certified chicken stock or a vegetable stock works (see stock cubes).

It follows the Good Food team's Moroccan chicken with sweet potato mash for BBC Good Food, which serves four. If you have no ras el hanout, the source suggests a mix of ground cinnamon and cumin.

Serve the sliced chicken and its sauce over the mash.

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.

Safe substitutes

  • Chicken breasts of unknown slaughter → Halal skinless, boneless chicken breasts
  • 200 ml chicken stock → 200 ml Halal-certified chicken stock or vegetable stock

Allergens

none

Ingredients

Mash

  • 1 kg sweet potatoes, cubed

Chicken

  • 2 tsp ras el hanout (or a mix of ground cinnamon and cumin)
  • 4 Halal skinless, boneless chicken breasts
  • 2 tbsp olive oil (1 for the chicken, 1 for the mash)
  • 1 onion, thinly sliced
  • 1 fat garlic clove, crushed
  • 200 ml Halal-certified chicken stock, or vegetable stock
  • 2 tsp clear honey
  • ½ lemon, juiced
  • handful green olives, pitted or whole
  • 20 g pack coriander leaves, chopped

Method

  1. Boil the sweet potatoes. Boil the sweet potatoes in salted water for 15 minutes or until tender.
  2. Brown the chicken. Meanwhile, mix the ras el hanout with some seasoning and sprinkle it all over the chicken. Heat 1 tbsp oil in a large frying pan and brown the chicken for 3 minutes on each side until golden.
  3. Simmer in the sauce. Lift the chicken out. Add the onion and garlic to the pan and cook for 5 minutes until softened. Add the stock, honey, lemon juice and olives, return the chicken and simmer for 10 minutes until the sauce is syrupy and the chicken is cooked.
  4. Mash. Mash the potatoes with the remaining 1 tbsp oil, then season.
  5. Serve. Thickly slice each chicken breast and stir the coriander through the sauce. Serve the chicken and sauce over the mash.

How this recipe was researched

Method adapted from BBC Good Food's 'Moroccan chicken with sweet potato mash' by the Good Food team, tagged Moroccan (serves 4: 1 kg cubed sweet potatoes boiled in salted water 15 minutes until tender; 2 tsp ras el hanout, or a mix of ground cinnamon and cumin, mixed with seasoning and sprinkled over 4 skinless, boneless chicken breasts, browned 3 minutes a side in 1 tbsp of 2 tbsp olive oil; the chicken lifted out, a thinly sliced onion and a crushed fat garlic clove softened 5 minutes; 200 ml chicken stock, 2 tsp honey, the juice of half a lemon and a handful of green olives added, the chicken returned and simmered 10 minutes until the sauce is syrupy and the chicken cooked; the potatoes mashed with the remaining oil and seasoned; the chicken thickly sliced, a 20 g pack of chopped coriander stirred through the sauce, served over the mash). We specified Halal chicken and a Halal-certified or vegetable stock; the first and last steps are each split at their natural break. Nothing else needed changing. Timings follow the published technique rather than a kitchen test.

Technique and ingredient sources

  1. Moroccan chicken with sweet potato mash — BBC Good Food Retrieved:

    By the Good Food team, tagged Moroccan. Serves 4, prep 10 minutes, cook 25 minutes: sweet potatoes boiled 15 minutes and mashed with oil; ras el hanout chicken breasts browned 3 minutes a side; onion and garlic, then stock, honey, lemon and green olives simmered 10 minutes with the chicken; coriander. We specified Halal chicken and stock.

  2. Chicken analysis — isithalal.food Retrieved:

    What makes chicken Halal: the slaughter.

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