Chicken Kdra

This recipe originates from North Africa, probably Morocco. It was taken from a book called "The African and Middle Eastern Cookbook" from 'Anness Publishing Ltd' but changed to suit a single portion with some ingredient changes to simplify the process. It is a very pleasant dish.

Ingredients

For 1	Continued...
25 gm butter (see note 1)	200 ml chicken stock
1 chicken breast	50 gm chickpeas
¼ tspn turmeric (see note 2)	¼ tspn ground cinnamon
¼ tspn salt	25 gm blanched almonds
freshly ground black pepper to taste	1 handful flat leaf parsley
100 - 120 gm onions (prepared weight)	1 tbspn lemon juice (see note 3)

Preparation

Simmer the blanched almonds in water for about 2 hours to soften.
Thinly slice the onions.
Chop the parsley.

Cooking

Heat a heavy saucepan over a low/medium flame and add the butter, chicken, turmeric, salt and pepper until the butter melts.
Stir in the onions and stock, bring to a boil and add the chickpeas and cinnamon and simmer, stirring occasionally, for 45 min. adding a little more water if the sauce begins to dry out.
Remove the chicken to a plate and cut in half to ensure it is fully cooked.
If necessary, continue to reduce the sauce to the consistency you prefer and then add the almonds and parsley, stir and cook for 2 min.
Add the lemon juice and return the chicken to the pan, stir and heat through.

Serving

Serve with rice and garnish with a little freshly chopped flat leaf parsley.

Notes

(1) Smen is normally used and is a type of clarified butter.
(2) Saffron is normally used but this is very expensive and the flavour would be lost in this dish, so use turmeric instead to add colour.
(3) You can add more to suit your own taste.

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