Moroccan chicken salad
Serves 5-6
This is definitely not your average salad. It’s amazing – tender spiced Moroccan chicken thighs, honey soaked apricots, red onion, couscous and the most delicious garlicky coriander yoghurt dressing. The pomegranate seeds add a positively festive splash of colour, making this salad absolutely perfect for Christmas entertaining. And if you wanted to add some sliced avocado or chopped strawberries, be my guest!
Ingredients
1 cup orange juice
2 tbsp honey
3/4 cup dried apricots, quartered
1kg chicken thighs, boneless & skinless
3 tsp cumin seeds
3 tsp ground coriander
2 tsp turmeric
½ tsp mixed spice
½ tsp white pepper
Zest of 1 lemon
½ cup pistachio or pine nuts
1 ½ cups Israeli couscous
3 cups baby spinach leaves
1 red onion, very thinly sliced
Handful pomegranate seeds (optional)
Dressing
1 bunch fresh coriander, chopped
¼ cup unsweetened yoghurt
¼ cup mayonnaise
1 clove garlic, crushed
Pinch of chili flakes
Method
Gently heat the orange juice and honey until melted. Add the apricots, transfer to a bowl, cover and leave to soak for two hours or overnight.
Add the chicken thighs to a bowl with the 2 tbsp olive oil, cumin seeds, coriander, turmeric, mixed spice, white pepper and lemon zest. Mix well and leave for 1 hour or overnight.
Toast the pistachio or pine nuts in a dry pan for a couple of minutes until fragrant.
Heat an oiled BBQ grill or frying pan over a high heat. Add the chicken and cook until browned on one side. Turn over and reduce the heat to medium. Cook for about 10 minutes or until cooked through, turning once more. Season well with salt and pepper, and rest for 5-10 minutes.
Whisk the dressing ingredients together with 3 tbsp of the apricot marinade juice, and season.
Mix the onion in a bowl with a good pinch of salt and a squeeze of lemon juice. Just before serving, rinse and squeeze out.
Cook couscous according to packet directions (for an extra tasty version, cook it in chicken stock, not water), drain, and add to a large mixing bowl. While hot, stir through spinach, sliced onion, drained apricots and 2 tbsp dressing. Toss and arrange on a platter.
Slice the warm chicken and arrange over top (pour over any resting juices). Drizzle with remaining dressing and sprinkle with the nuts, pomegranate seeds and extra fresh coriander or parsley.
Can I use fresh or tinned apricots in juice instead of dried?
Is there a substitute for the coriander or would you just leave this out?
You could use parsley for the herby flavour
Could the onion be sliced the day before, and the salad dressing made the day before as well?
yes
I love this dish. If I’m making this for Christmas day just as a side salad without the chicken. Iw’m ondering if this can be made ahead of time so it’s ready the day before and stored in the fridge? (Have 3 little children!)..and can a cheese like haloumi be added or is that not the right cheese for this dish? Thank you
Have made this delicious salad many times but have friends coming over for dinner who are Gluten free and dairy free. I see on an earlier comment I can substitute the pearl couscous for brown rice or quinoa but could you help me find something to sub the yogurt with? :-)
coconut yoghurt x
Do you have a dairy free dressing option for this?
use coconut yoghurt x
Can I eat this recipe next day mixed in the refrigerator?
This is the best recipe by far! My husband and two year old son loves it! Please come up with more salads like this one????
This is one of my favourites. I love the apricot flavour through it and the chicken is delicious. Friends and family rave about it when I’ve made it. Delicious
I have made this twice in 3 weeks and love it. It tastes better the day after. I made it in advance so we have meals / lunches the next 3 days. Love this recipe! Thank you!
Love making this salad when guests come round! Tomorrow we are having a vegetarian and dairy free guest. Was wondering if substituting tofu for chicken would work?
Yes I don’t see why not?
Oh and I forgot to mention, left the couscous out altogether to make it low carb…. didn’t miss it at all!
Wow, that is one seriously delicious recipe. Thanks Chelsea! I made a few alterations as I didn’t have apricots, so used dates and also no coriander so I used mint instead. Magic!
Made this for dinner tonight-my fiancé loved it ☺️?
Oooops…auto correct!!! That was meant to be cous cous!!!!
Any suggestions for what you could use instead of course virus to make it gluten free?
Brown rice? :) Or quinoa.
My husband has brought me all 4 of your books and the recipes are amazing. We are making this tonight and I can’t wait until dinner time!! Yummy!!
Hi, I was wondering what could I use instead of cous cous?
quinoa would work x
Hi Chelsea, do you need to use fresh orange juice or can you use bought orange juice? Thanks
Either!
This dish was absolutely lovely and so
Simple to make – thank you
Hi, this recipe sounds amazing. I live in a hot climate. Do you think it would be okay to serve cold?
Love your recipes Chelsea… thanks for providing real food, that real people eat!! I cant stop giving your books away as gifts :)
Hello Chelsea. Is this recipe from At My Table. Have your latest book but would like the one with above and also the Creamy Chicken Pie. Happy Cooking!!
Chicken pie is in At My Table, and this salad is in Homemade Happiness :)
This was probably one of the best dishes I have ever made (and I have made a few). The pomegranate seeds are, I believe, a must. Once again a wonderful recipe.
Hi Chelsea, can’t wait to make this for dinner this week! However pomegranate isn’t around (and neither are strawberries), anything else you would recommend replacing with? Thanks so much!! x
Some sliced pear would be nice! Or a little sliced orange.
This salad was delicious!! The spice combo for the chicken was soooo good. I’m going to use that for other dishes too! I loved the addition of pistachios and pomegranate. I halved the recipe to make for less people and it worked fine.
This salad is gorgeous!!! I have made it over and over and it’s always a winner. Can’t wait for your next book ;)
I can’t get pomegranate. What could I use instead? Thanks
Strawberries!
Eating this salad at this very moment. Oh. My. Goodness. So yum!! Can’t wait to try more of your recipes. x
Hey, I was just wondering if this would be ok to take to a bbq and be eaten a couple of hours after making it? Or is it best served immediately?
Hi Chelsea, I made this last night, and everybody loved it. A great combination of flavours. Thanks for sharing this recipe, will definitely be making it again.
Definitely not your average salad – bloody amazing!! This is my new go to summer recipe. Made it for two different groups of people now, and safe to say it was happy bellies all around both times. Such a delicious summery meal. Thanks for another great recipe – I’m eyeing up the Roast Chicken salad in your cookbook next :)
I have never cooked a Chelsea Winter recipe but was desperate on the weekend for something yummy, and this Moroccan Salad came up randomly on a Google search. It looked interesting so I thought I would give it a go. This meal is totally and utterly divine! My partner and I were blown away with the flavours, and it will be cooked again and again I am sure. It looked fantastic on the platter and would be a perfect dish for a dinner party. Really pleasantly surprised and impressed!!! I couldn’t find pomegranate seeds which was a shame and not sure if anything could replace them.
My all time favourite meal! I would eat it every night if I could.
Hello! This salad looks delicious. I’m wanting to use it for a Christmas BBQ, but don’t want to include the chicken. Do you think including the marinade ingredients (turmeric, coriander etc.) in with the soaking liquid for the apricots would be a good way of incorporating those flavours?
Hi there, no I wouldn’t – the spices need to be cooked, so you would just leave them out.
I made this salad for a BBQ over summer and didn’t want to add the chicken since there was already so much meat being cooked on the BBQ. I just added all the spices to some chicken stock and used that to cook the couscous. Tasted so good! I want to try it again with the chicken though
Yum yum yum, made this last night and it was so good. Thanks Chelsea :)
Chelsea! I can’t believe no one has raved about this yet! Just made it tonight and my fiancé said the chicken was *%#$!&@ delicious and he felt like it was a privilege to be eating it. :) I agree. What a great salad (or even just the marinated meat) to take to BBQ…it would definitely stand out! But maybe we should keep that to ourselves? Thanks for yet another awesome recipe. How do you do it?!
Made this and your lemon white chocolate mousse for the first time for a dinner party tonight. Was a winner! The salad was amazing and so full of flavour! The pomegranate made it. Thanks for sharing another wonderful recipe Chelsea.