Chicken and Saffron Moghrabieh - Chef Recipe by Shane Delia

Ingredients

1kg chicken thighs - each cut into 6 pieces.
1 Tbs honey
2 Tbs turmeric powder
1 Tbs red Aleppo
2 Tbs coriander powder
2 cinnamon quills
2 star anise
1 small brown onion diced
1L chicken stock
300g Lebanese couscous, blanched in salted water for 9 minutes
Half a sujuk (Turkish beef sausage)
100g potato starch
2 Lebanese eggplants, cut into rings and deep fried till golden
25g whole blanched almonds, roasted and chopped
1/4 bunch picked coriander, torn
40g Iranian white figs, rehydrated, cut in half
Pinch saffron
Salt, to taste
Lemon juice to taste

Method

Sujuk Powder:

Thinly slice sujuk and dehydrate overnight at 75 C until dry and quickly blitz to a powder.

Dust all chicken thighs with potato starch and 1 tablespoon of turmeric and shallow fry in ghee until golden on the outside. While browning chicken in another small pot, leach your saffron with 100mL of water and bring to a simmer.

In the same pot you used to brown the chicken, add the onion and sauté until translucent but not brown, add the cinnamon quills, coriander powder, star anise and cook for 2 minutes, add the honey and allow to caramelise.

Once honey has started caramelising, add chicken stock and saffron liquid, bring to the boil and add the red Aleppo, lemon juice and browned chicken.

Simmer until chicken is cooked through.

Remove chicken and reduce sauce for 15 minutes. Take out the cinnamon sticks and star anise from sauce.

Add remaining ingredients and season with lemon juice and salt, finishing with the torn coriander.

Serve in bowl and sprinkle with sujuk powder over the top.

Credits: Shane Delia