Moroccan Chicken with Couscous

{Moroccan Chicken with Couscous}

During my first trimester with Jillian, I was sick as a dog. No food tasted, sounded, or even smelled good. From that point on, I was completely disinterested in cooking. This was hard for me because I used to love to cook. In fact, for Valentine's Day of 2011, Phil and I made a special dinner together. That was one of the best dates we've ever had.

Once Jillian came, I was too tired to cook. I really didn't care what I ate as long as someone stuck something in front of my face.

I'm happy to say that I'm finally back to enjoying cooking again! It certainly helps that I'm finally getting in the swing of things as a SAHM. I have several recipes that I get from magazines and TV shows. Around the middle of February, we had a little mini-magazine in our Sunday paper that contained a few slow cooker recipes. One in particular sounded really good! I made it on Tuesday night and we'll be having the leftovers tonight. If I altered anything in the recipe, I make note of it using italics. It's really not that spicy either. If you like that, great! If not, I'm sure you'll be able to figure out how to spice it up a bit :) I hope you enjoy it too!

Moroccan Chicken with Couscous


Prep Time: 20 minutes (35 if you have to skin the chicken thighs yourself like I did)
Total Time: 4 hrs 20 minutes (8 hrs 35 minutes because I cooked it on Low instead of High)
Serves: 6 (4 because we had less chicken to start with)


Ingredients
1 (12 oz) bag frozen butternut squash cubes (I couldn't find this so I used 1 16 oz bag of frozen yellow squash)
2 tomatoes, chopped (I used 1 tomato because Phil is not a huge tomato fan)
1 onion, chopped (I used 1/2 of a white onion)
2 tsp minced garlic (per Coghill family tradition, I used about 1 1/2 Tbsp of minced garlic - we love garlic)
1 (15 oz) can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1 cup chicken broth
1/2 cup raisins (I omitted this)
2 tsp coriander
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp cinnamon
3/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cayenne
3 lb bone-in, skinless chicken thighs (I couldn't find 3 lbs exactly. I used 2 1/4 lb of bone-in and skinned the thighs myself. It's messy but doable)
1 (10 oz) box couscous (I only made 2 servings instead of the whole box)
1/2 cup pitted black olives, halved (We love kalamata olives so I used 1/3 cup of pitted and halved kalamata olives)

Directions
1. In a large slow cooker, combine squash, tomatoes, onion, garlic, chickpeas, both, and raisins. In a small bowl, stir together coriander, cumin, cinnamon, salt, and cayenne. Rub spice mixture into chicken.
2. Arrange chicken in a single layer atop vegetables in slow cooker. Cover and cook for 4 hours on high or 8 hours on low.
3. Prepare couscous according to package directions. Fluff with a fork. Stir olives into slow cooker. Serve chicken and vegetables with couscous.

Per serving: 710 cal, 89g carbs, 60g protein, 13g fat, 190mg chol, 760mg sodium, 11g fiber

{Mmmmm}

Happy cooking!