moroccan chicken thighs

... as many of you will know it's always a heart-stopping moment when someone tells you they've made one of your recipes... you hold your breath for one, long, drawn-out moment... until they tell you that it was a huge success and everyone loved it...

... I realise that this may come across as rather smug but when I started this blog, other than the obvious push for world domination, I never actually thought for one moment that any of you would turn your hand to one of my dishes, so when the praises for my chicken thigh yakitori came shuffling in I was a little surprised but rather chuffed and it got me thinking about expanding my love for chicken thighs to a little world tour of flavours...

... so we'll start with North Africa shall we...?

moroccan chicken thighs
in a bid not to alienate my vegetarian friends I have created a veggie version of this dish... The Viking gives it his thumbs up even though there's a lot of sweet and savoury going on... which is a big deal as you know... it all gets prepped in one big bowl and then poured on top of the chicken thighs or veggie substitute, so no grumbling in the back...

for the marinade
2 medium onions - roughly chopped
2 medium carrots - roughly chopped
2 sticks of celery - roughly chopped
a handful of mushrooms - quartered
5 or 6 cloves of garlic - un-peeled (unless you can be bothered)
1 x 450g tin of chickpeas
1 x 250g tin of chopped tomatoes
a glass of white wine
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp turmeric
2 tsp cumin seeds
2 tbsp apricot jam
a handful of olives (I used the fresh, ready pitted ones from the supermarket)
a handful of dried prunes - chopped (I wanted to use apricots but the prunes were in my cupboard)
a handful of almond slivers
some olive oil, salt and pepper

6 chicken thighs or the veggie equivalent (I have used some Quorn 'chicken' style portions as I find they take on flavours really well and have a good texture, they also stood up really well to the slow roasting)

- pre-heat the oven to 120C (slow roast) or 180C (fast roast)

- take a very large bow and mix all the ingredients for the marinade together

- if you're just doing chicken thighs, add them in at this stage... if you're doing a veggie version as well, then portion the mixture into 2 individual roasting trays and add the 'meat'

- wrap the roasting trays tightly in foil and roast for 6 hours

- after 5 and a half hours take the foil off, add the almond slivers and turn the heat up to 200 and roast for  the final 30 mins until golden

- if you don't have a long lazy day to make this, 2 hours at 180C will do it justice.

eat and of course enjoy!