Chicken and Butternut Tagine

We were watching some recorded episodes of 'Celebrity' Masterchef last night and contestant Shappi Khorsandi cooked an Iranian chicken leg recipe for the guest judges. She didn't get great reviews for it, but my phantom early pregnancy symptoms continue and I immediately wanted to eat chicken leg. Given the existence of something like couvade syndrome, I know it is entirely possible that the symptoms are solely in my head. Nevertheless, I am starving! So off we went to the butcher this morning.

By the way, after noting her cradling her bump at the beginning of the first episode, I was especially tickled by Shappi's freudian slip about cooking placenta.  I hear its good for you!

In this tagine recipe, I made sure not to make Shappi's mistake (commented on by the judges) of serving the chicken with rubbery skin...

Fertility Focus
Butternut Squash is rich in Vitamin A, zinc and selenium.
Chickpeas are a good plant source of protein and dietary fibre.

Ingredients

• Chicken legs
• Onion
• Finely chopped garlic
• Finely chopped hunk of fresh ginger
• Cumin seeds
• Ground coriander
• Cinnamon
• Tumeric
• Carrot
• Butternut squash
• Cooked chickpeas
• Dried apricots

Method
Set the oven to 180 degrees C.  Place the chicken, skin side down, in an ovenproof casserole dish.  Turn on the heat and brown both sides (in batches if necessary, I did 2 batches of 3 chicken legs), allowing the fat to render, like when you cook duck breast.

Chop the vegetables into large-ish chunks.  When all the chicken is browned remove to a plate, drain the chicken fat then add the onion, garlic, ginger and spices to the casserole.  Cook until the onion is soft then add the root vegetables and mix well.  Pour over enough chicken stock to almost cover the root veg, then arrange the browned chicken, skin side up on top of the veggies.  Put the lid on and cook in the oven for about 40 minutes.

Remove from the oven and carefully stir the chickpeas and apricot in to the liquid under the chicken without mushing up the root veg.  Return to oven with the lid off, turn up the heat to 200 and continue cooking another 10-15 minutes, until the chicken skin is brown and crispy.

Although moroccan tagine is typically served with flatbread, I served this with fluffy quinoa (having discovered we were out of millet) and garnished with toasted almonds.

Acceptably crispy skin