Tart London: How to make sticky Moroccan chicken with saffron and cardamom rice

Jemima Jones and Lucy Carr-Ellison bring home the flavours of Marrakech with a sticky Moroccan chicken 

We recently took a trip to Marrakech to hunt for tiles for our new restaurant.

It was a great success: not only did we find the perfect tiles, we also picked up all sorts of other goodies, from beautiful hand-painted coffee cups and salad bowls to colourful silk rugs. It’s just magical in Morocco. We got up early to potter around the medina before it got too busy, winding through the souks to the spice market and turning a corner to discover the dazzling light market.

Food was very much a priority while we were there and we had lots of wonderful recommendations to work our way through. One of our favourite restaurants was at El Fenn, a sumptuous hotel in the medina that also houses a wonderful contemporary art collection. We sat outside in the courtyard under a canopy of bougainvillea and banana trees next to a crackling fire, with views of the snowcapped Atlas Mountains.

Supper was a set menu scribbled down on a blackboard, which started with an array of colourful mezze dishes followed by lamb tagine and a mouth-watering chicken dish. As we sat there trying to decipher what had gone into the sauce, the head chef himself came out to chat to guests and we convinced him to spill his secret: the freshest spices possible. In this dish, he had used ras el hanout, a sublime mix of cardamom, cloves, cinnamon, paprika, turmeric, cumin, coriander, nutmeg, cayenne, allspice and rose. Luckily it’s easy to find in many stores or online.

Garden fresh: Jemima and Lucy take pasta prep to new al fresco heights

Ingredients

For the marinade

2 tbsp ras el hanout

2 garlic cloves, crushed

2 tbsp olive oil

Juice of ½ a lemon

Salt and pepper

4 chicken breasts, skin on

2 tbsp groundnut oil

1 onion, chopped

3 garlic cloves, sliced

1 fennel bulb, halved and sliced

1 tsp cumin seeds

1 small aubergine, cubed

Handful of dates, pitted and chopped

50ml sherry

150ml chicken stock

For the rice

1 tbsp butter

300g basmati rice

1 cinnamon stick

3 cardamom pods, bashed

1 glass of white wine

2 bay leaves

Pinch of saffron

300ml stock or water

Handful of pistachios, chopped

Method

Mix all the marinade ingredients together in a bowl, add the chicken breasts and coat. Cover and place in the fridge for at least 30 minutes. Remove and bring back to room temperature.

Heat the oil in a large pan over a high heat and place the chicken skin-side down for a minute or so to get the skin nice and crispy. Turn and brown the other side. Remove from the pan and keep to one side. Lower the heat and add the onion, garlic and fennel. Sauté for 3 minutes then add the cumin seeds and aubergine and brown slightly. Stir in the dates, sherry and stock.

Place the chicken breasts back in the pan skin-side up, cover with a lid and lightly simmer for 20 minutes. Meanwhile, cook the rice. Melt the butter in a pan and add the cinnamon and cardamom, then stir in the rice to coat in the butter. Cook like this for 2-3 minutes until it starts to smell like popcorn. Add the wine, bay leaves and saffron then pour in stock and simmer for 12-15 minutes. Season and add the pistachios. Serve topped with pomegranate seeds, coriander and a dollop of yoghurt.

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