Stuffed Chicken Stuffed Chicken

Ingredients

• 3-4 cups of cooked couscous
• A large handful of roasted (or raw) almonds
• 2 teaspoons of orange blossom water
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 whole chicken (around 2-3 pounds / 1-1.5 Kg)
• 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon ground pepper (to taste)
• 2 teaspoons ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric
• large pinch of saffron threads (optional)
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 cinnamon stick
• A bunch of fresh cilantro
• 1 tablespoon of butter
• 5 medium sized onions (thinly sliced)
• Same chicken spices for the caramelized onions (salt, pepper, ginger, turmeric, saffron)
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon white granulated sugar
• Water

Directions

1. Step 1: Preparing the Couscous Filling

   1- Let’s prepare the couscous filling. First chop roasted or raw almonds for some crunch.
   2- Then you need cooked couscous – check out my video on how to cook couscous in just 10 minutes – add orange blossom to it for the Moroccan touch, then ground cinnamon, and the chopped almonds3- Take some of the couscous for the filling – around 1 small bowl, and keep the rest for serving.4- Fill your chicken with the couscous almond filling. Then use tooth picks to close the chicken. 

   
   
2. Step 2: Marinating the Chicken
   1- Now, it’s chicken marinade time. In a bowl combine vegetable oil, salt, pepper, ground ginger, ground turmeric, and a pinch of saffron threads. Mix well.2- Place the chicken in a large bowl and rub it well with the marinade. For more flavors, you can leave the chicken to rest in the fridge a few hours before cooking it or you can use right away.
   
   
3. Step 3: Cooking the Chicken
   1- On medium heat, drizzle some olive oil in a large pot.
   2- Once it’s a bit hot, add the chicken. We want to cook the chicken for a few minutes, from all sides until it changes color and it is not pink anymore.
   3- Then, add a cinnamon stick for even more flavors, and water until it reaches half the height of the chicken.  
   4- Add a nice fresh bunch of cilantro, cover your pot, and cook the chicken on medium-high. After 15 minutes, check on the chicken, and flip it on the other side. Cover and continue cooking for another 15-20 minutes. 
   
   
4. Step 4: Baking the Chicken
   1- The chicken is almost cooked – remove it from the pot, place in a baking pan and pour the thick sauce on top of it. Oh YUM!
   2- Now, place a few pieces of butter on top of the chicken and to the hot oven, that you already preheated at 390 F which is 200 C. 
   3- Bake the chicken for 20 minutes or so, until the chicken gets a beautiful roasted color. 
   
   
5. Step 5: Making the Caramelized Onions
   1- To make this dish even better, while the chicken is baking, we are going to place some finely sliced onions in the pot where the chicken cooked, add some ground turmeric, pinch of saffron, ground ginger, salt, pepper, basically the same spices as the marinade, but add some ground cinnamon!
   2- Mix well, add a little bit of water, cover, and cook on medium heat.
   3- You will see that the onions will start melting and absorbing all the flavors. Check on the onions from time to time, add a little bit of water if they are too dry, stir, cover, and continue cooking for around 20 minutes. 
   4- Then, add some sugar, stir and continue cooking for another 10 minutes, until you get these beautifully sweet caramelized onions.
   
   
6. Step 6: Serving! 
   1- Warm up the couscous that we had kept for serving, you can make a bed of couscous in your plate, top it with the chicken, and top the chicken with the caramelized onions.2- Or, you can cut your chicken in half and  serve individual plates with a small dome of couscous.Bonne Appetite!