The Capsule Pantry: Stewed Chicken with Aubergine, Chickpeas, Dates and Ras El Hanout

Sounds inflexible, is anything but

Welcome to The Capsule Pantry. Highly flexible, waste-reducing recipes delivered to your inbox every Wednesday, designed to be adapted to what’s in your fridge and pantry. The Capsule Pantry is paid-subscriber only. If you’d like full access, sign up for $5 a month or $50 a year and revolutionize the way you cook today.

I wouldn’t ordinarily use such a specific dish as a jumping-off point here at The Capsule Pantry. After all, TCP is supposed to be about flexible recipes.

But interestingly, this recipe started as something entirely different. It was a Diana Henry vegetarian side dish. There was no ras al hanout and there was no yogurt dressing - it was tahini.

As with many of my favourite recipes, it’s morphed over the years, largely thanks to my scant traveling spice cupboard and the fact that I don’t ever travel with tahini.

Now, this dish sits firmly in my everyday dishes rotation - I must make it at least every two weeks and it almost always comes out different, depending on what I can get my hands on whilst I’m on the road. It could be chicken or pork or simply vegetarian. It could be aubergine or carrots. It could be yogurt dressing or no dressing at all.

It is, in fact, the perfect TCP recipe.

The original recipe

Serves 4

For the chicken

• 4 chicken portions. They can be boneless chicken thighs (my preferred choice), drumsticks, or breasts. Ideally skin-on.

• Two small (or one large) white onions cut into chunks

• 4 garlic cloves, minced

• 1 large or two small aubergines cut into 1/2 inch chunks

• 2 teaspoons Ras el Hanout spice mix

• Juice of half a large or a whole small lemon

• 3 tablespoons olive oil

• Salt to season

• 16 oz can chickpeas, drained

• 8 dates, stoned and roughly chopped (optional)

For the sauce

• Plain yogurt - around 6 heaped tablespoons worth

• 1 large garlic clove, minced

• Salt to season

To serve

• Basic flatbreads, crusty bread or plain white rice

Pre-heat the oven to 180C / 350F.

In an oven dish with a lid, throw in the white onions, aubergines, garlic, lemon juice, Ras el Hanout, and olive oil and season with salt. Mix well.

Place the oven dish - lid on - into the oven for around 35 minutes. Keep an eye on it - the vegetables should release some water and cook nicely in it but if it looks too dry or like it might burn, add a splash of water.

Whilst the vegetables are cooking, heat a frying pan on high heat and glug in a little oil. Season the chicken portions and fry until they’re golden.

Add the chicken to the dish after about 10 minutes of the vegetables being in the oven. Because this is a lid-on dish, the chicken shouldn’t dry out so err on the side of caution to ensure the chicken is cooked.

After around 35 minutes, pull the dish out of the oven and add the chickpeas and dates. Return for 10 more minutes (or longer if you think the chicken or vegetables are not cooked enough, that will depend on your oven).

The juice that comes out of the vegetables and the chicken will act as a sauce so again, keep an eye on the liquid level and add water if you think it’s looking too dry.

Prepare the yogurt by mixing the ingredients together. Drizzle over the hot chicken stew and serve with flatbreads.

Variations

The meat

As I say, the original recipe was vegetarian so you can absolutely leave the chicken out - I often do.

You could also make this as a side to griddled pork chops or steak.

The vegetables

Carrots work nicely in this dish - in fact, any root vegetables are great.

You could add potatoes if you want to make something more filling.

The spices

I use ras al hanout because I find it a great all-round spice blend that is perfect for traveling. I will also add ground cumin, and ground coriander or mix and match the three.

The chickpeas

Omit these if you don’t like them or don’t have them in your pantry.

The oven

I’ve made this dish on the stovetop and it works great. It takes around an hour on low heat with the occasional stir to ensure no burnt bits on the bottom. Because cooking on a stove is more aggressive than in the oven, you may find you need to add more liquid to the dish to ensure you’ve got a sauce at the end.

The liquid

Add a splash of white wine if you have it. I normally top up with water but you could also use stock.

The yogurt dressing

Omit entirely or pimp up with herbs like mint, coriander, dill or oregano (dried or fresh works).

If you have tahini, the original Diana Henry recipe called for mixing tahini with a splash of lemon juice, and a minced garlic clove. Thin it out with water until you have something akin to the consistency of single cream and drizzle over the chicken.

Make it spicy

Add chili flakes if you fancy a little heat with your dinner.

---