For today’s recipe, chicken breasts are drizzled with an oil and lemon mixture followed by a sprinkling of spices — sweet paprika, cumin and coriander spiked with ground caraway seed. The seasoning mixture gets some heat from red pepper flakes.
This dish is served with grilled red onions and a side couscous. The couscous cooks in 5 minutes if you use regular couscous or about 10 minutes if you use pearl couscous. Sweet dried apricots and cranberries added to the couscous brightens its flavor.
With this recipe you will have leftover oil-lemon mixture. You can drizzle more on the chicken and onions during grilling if desired. Or store it for another use, such as drizzling over salad greens.
Tunisian-spiced chicken breasts
Serves: 4 /Preparation time: 10 minutes
Total time: 30 minutes (plus 30 minutes for soaking skewers)
Spice mixture
1 Tbsp. ground cumin
1 Tbsp. sweet paprika
1 Tbsp. ground coriander
1 tsp. ground caraway seed
1/8 tsp. red pepper flakes
Chicken and onions
1 cup olive oil
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice (from about 4 lemons)
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, pounded evenly to 1/2-inch thickness
2 large red onions, peeled and cut into 1-inch-thick slices
8 wooden skewers, soaked in water for 30 minutes
2 cups cooked couscous
1/2 cup chopped dried apricots
1/2 cup currants or sweetened dried cranberries
1/2 cup chopped green onions (white and green parts)
1/4 cup chopped fresh Italian parsley
Prepare the grill on high heat. Oil a perforated grill rack and set it aside, if using.
In a small bowl, combine all the spice mixture ingredients.
In another small bowl or glass measuring cup combine the olive oil and lemon juice, whisk to blend and set the mixture aside.
Place the chicken on a doubled, sided baking sheet (the bottom one will be for the cooked food) and drizzle each breast with about 1 tablespoon of the olive oil mixture. Then lightly sprinkle both sides of each chicken breast with about 1 tablespoon of the spice mixture. Set the chicken aside.
Skewer each onion slice width-wise on a wooden skewer and place them on the perforated grill rack, if using, or on a separate platter. Reserving 2 to 3 tablespoons of the olive oil mixture for the couscous, drizzle the onions with some of the olive oil mixture.
Mix the couscous with the apricots, cranberries, onions and parsley and drizzle the mixture with the remaining olive oil mixture.
Grill the chicken about 2 1/2 minutes per side or until cooked through, depending on the size and thickness of the breasts.
Grill the onions 3 to 4 minutes per side, turning once, or until you have good grill marks and the onions become tender.
Transfer the cooked food to the clean baking sheet. Serve with the couscous.
Adapted from “Weeknight Grilling with the BBQ Queens,” by Karen Adler and Judith Fertig (Harvard Common Press, $14.95).
Tested by Susan Selasky in the Free Press Test Kitchen.
558 calories (30 percent from fat), 19 g fat (3 g sat. fat), 56 g carbohydrates, 40 g protein, 105 mg sodium, 96 mg cholesterol, 84 mg calcium, 6 g fiber.
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