Moroccan Spiced Chicken

This is a really tasty stew with an exotic flavor. I'm using the classic North African spice combination with a tomato base. It takes some time to get all the ingredients together, but it's well worth the effort! Here I'm using a tagine to cook the Moroccan spiced chicken. A tagine is an eye catching piece of cookware that is made of ceramic and has a very wide base and tall conical lid. The tagine provides a hot moist cooking environment and as the food cooks, steam rises to the top of the cone, condenses and trickles down the sides and back into the dish.

Ingredients:
6 bone in chicken thighs
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 teaspoons ground turmeric
1 teaspoon ground cumin
2 teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon mace
1 cinnamon stick
1" piece peeled ginger root
1 yellow onion coarsely chopped
2 tablespoons tomato paste
2 medium tomato's quartered
3 or 4 yellow new potato's halved
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/4 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
1/4 fresh ground sea salt
1 cup chicken stock
1 cup clack olives
4 cups cooked couscous

Preparation:

Combine the spices (turmeric, cumin, coriander, mace, cayenne pepper, salt and black pepper) in a small bowl. Add the olive oil and mix. Place the chicken and spice mix in a Ziploc bag and marinate for a couple of hours.

Prepare your tagine or crock pot by coating with a some olive oil. Add the chicken and the rest of the ingredients; cinnamon stick, ginger root, tomato paste, onion, tomato, potato, olives and chicken stock. Cook in the crock pot on high for 4 hours Cook in the tagne on the stove over lowest heat for 2 hours and you're done.

Prepare the couscous according to instructions, which is usually 4 cups water or chicken stock, pinch of salt if you're using water and 2 cups couscous. Place the water or stock in a medium sauce pan. Bring to a boil and add the couscous and cover, turn off the heat. Let stand a minimum of 5 minute and when ready to serve, fluff with a fork.

To serve, place a portion of couscous in a flat bowl and top with the Moroccan spiced chicken. Garnish with chopped Italian parsley.