Chicken, Olive & Chickpea Stew

A dish with characteristically North African flavors; sweet spices, chickpeas, lemon, and green olives blend together to make a meltingly delicious stew. Serve with couscous to soak up the juices or with rice. This one-pot supper dish releases its wonderful fragrances as soon as you lift the lid. If you like a paler stew,use 1 tsp turmeric instead of 2 tsp.







4 Tbsp olive oil
1 whole chicken or 4 chicken breast
1 large onion
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp ground turmeric
½ tsp coriander seeds, crushed
4 pods green cardamons, lightly crushed
240 ml chicken stock or water
1 lemon juice
1 tin garbanzos or chickpeas, drained and rinsed
12 pitted green olives
salt and pepper to taste



1. Heat 2 tablespoon of the oil in a large pan and brown the chicken pieces on both sides. Remove and set aside.

2. Heat the remaining oil and sauté the onions and garlic for 2 minutes until softened but not browned. Add in the turmeric, cumin, coriander and cardamon and cook gently for 1 minute. Stir in the stock, juice, chickpeas and chicken.

3. Bring to boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer for 40-50 minutes or until chicken is tender. Add the olives 10 minutes before the end of cooking.

4. Season with salt and pepper.

Balik Adobo, Bayan

This is what we have for dinner last night, adobo. Adobo is the national dish of the Philippines, and an all-time favorite. No matter how many dishes you know still you keep on coming back cooking this dish. It is a very easy dish to prepare as you just mix everything and cook it. You can use beef , pork or eggplant or mixed with any meat of your choice. I like to have a lot of sauce, some like it thickened or dry (in which you fry the meat).


CHICKEN ADOBO

1 kg drumstick or chicken pieces
¼ c soy sauce
2 T vinegar
¼ c water
2 T Lea & Perins worcestershire sauce
2 t coarse salt
2 t peppercorn, freshly ground or whole
5-6 cloves garlic, finely minced
1-2 bay leaves


Combine all ingredients in the pot, except the water. Marinate it for at least 30 minutes. Cover chicken to the brim with water. Cook over medium heat until the water-vinegar evaporates (if you want thick sauce) or until the mixture reduced in half. Turn the chicken pieces to cook it evenly.

Options:
You can add potatoes or boiled egg.