Moroccan-Style Chicken (pg. 87)

My first foray into the book challenged my preconceived notion that I would never cook a recipe with "Moroccan" in the title.  Looking at the ingredients, it all seemed so intriguing:

Chicken, cumin, salt, cinnamon stick, carrots, red onion, garlic cloves, yellow squash, petite diced tomatoes, vegetable broth, chick peas, and raisins.  I cheated and did not include the chick peas.  I knew that my husband was not a fan, and I made the executive decision that it would not ruin the dish to omit them. 

My husband prepped the chicken by cutting it into bite-size pieces while I worked on the rest.  That saved time.  (The recipe indicates 20 min prep and 10 min cook time.)  On a side note, it is very difficult to coordinate recipe reading, food prep and cooking while tending to sick children.  I'm happy that we had two sets of hands working on both the food and the kids.

On another side note, when the recipe calls for a 3-qt casserole dish, they really mean a 3-qt casserole dish.  I only have a 2.5 qt casserole dish that would fit in the microwave.  I am surprised that I did not have overflow of ingredients - it was touchy at times.

The dish cooks in stages.  First, the onions, garlic, and carrots for softening.  Then the squash, tomatoes and chicken, cinammon stick and broth.  Lastly the raisins.  I must admit that I was a bit nervous about cooking chicken in the microwave.  I cooked it for two minutes longer than the recipe called for just in case.

The smell of the chicken was heavenly through the house. 

And I tried couscous for the first time as well.  I can honestly say that I don't think that I would ever cook couscous on a whim.  I am glad that the recipe called for it.  I Love Couscous!!!

I was still nervous about the chicken being cooked through.  My rule of thumb on when chicken is done is that there is no pink.  Well, when chicken is cooked in veggie broth with lots of additional ingredients, it is difficult to tell if there is pink in the middle.  My second rule of thumb is that the chicken is firm throughout.  Not the case here - very tender chicken.  Very nervous diner.  But we rolled with it and enjoyed the myriad of flavors.  The recipe says that it serves 4.  We got six meals out of it and two small meals for my 2 1/2 year old, Anna.  We told her it was Rainbow Chicken and Stars.  A big hit.

Points:  7 pts for the chicken (1 cup chicken and 1 cup veggies).  2 pts for the couscous.
Points Plus:  9 points for the chicken.  Not sure on the couscous.

Verdict:  Would make it again.  Might cook the chicken a bit beforehand to see what that does to the texture.