This recipe comes from a co-worker who occasionally eats lunch in my office. She is a lovely person and we rarely have any conflict. However, one day she had the temerity to bring this dish, reheat it in my microwave and fill my office with the most delicious smell it has ever known. Let me tell you - it was ON! I demanded she give me her lunch, but my shakedown skills must have become rusty since my youth. And also, she was pretty fierce and defended herself with a plastic fork. And it is common knowledge that I am terrified of disposable kitchenware. At any rate, she gave me the recipe which I made this morning, left in the crockpot all day and am in the midst of eating as I type. Yum!

Here is the centerfold spread of ingredients. The white substance in the little wooden bowl is flour, lest any unsavory rumors start! Look at those breasts! (See, I have just made sure that people don't surf this site at work!)

Heat up your oil and cook your onions and garlic until the onion is tender. I use garlic in a jar, but since I chopped my own ginger, I consider it a draw...

Here are my spices! Don't they look like they are giving the bowl a stern talking to?  "C'mon, fella. Pull yourself together! Get yourself a nice jar and quit lying around all splayed out like that. Have some self respect!" It's a spice intervention!  Anyway, I went a little heavy with the cinnamon and cumin - I honestly think it is because I am used to using them so I used a freer hand. I should have used more coriander. Have you had that stuff?  It smells like heaven!  The original recipe called for something called ras el hanout spice mix. I didn't have a clue and they conveniently gave me the recipe in a sidebar! If you use ras el hanout, you just need to add the tumeric. The coriander, cinnamon, cumin and red pepper are in it.

I added the chicken stock and the flour and it really looked thick. I though, "Surely I need to add more stock or water or SOMETHING!!" But I trusted the recipe and it all turned out swell. I only made half of the original recipe and it still made a ton. More on that later. So here you see not a gunshot wound, but rather the blob of honey and tomato paste. Surely no good can come of an unholy alliance between those to crazy ingredients! We shall see...

See how pretty it looks once you add the spices and tomatoes? I meant to put in a picture of my finely chopped ginger it it's little glass bowl but you are going to have to take my word for it. It was FINE!

The mixture didn't seem like a lot in the crock pot. So to punish it I threw some big chunks of raw chicken on its head.

It was still unrepentant so I threw a bunch of garbanzos on it.  And I yelled "GAR-BAN-ZOS!!!!" as I did hucked them - the way one should. I wasn't sure about draining the beans so I poured out most of the garbanzo juice but left a little just in case. I have no idea about the properties of garbanzo juice. But I really like the phrase "garBANzo juice!"

 Then I felt kind of bad and decided to add some nice, sweet, chopped dried apricots to apologize. They sure pretty up the raw poultry and garbanzos.

I gave it a few quick stirs, covered it up and went about the rest of my day.

The problem came when we got home from church and my husband smelled the aroma and began to nag me about when dinner would be ready.  "Husband," I said, "this food is healthy and you won't like it and it won't be done until 4:30 anyway."

"But it smells so goooooooood!!" he cried. "And aren't you always telling me to try new things?"

"You are having chicken fingers and fries. This has cous cous and GARBANZOS in it!!"

But he persisted in his...well...persistence and so I agreed that he could try some. Of course, he is not "a huge fan" of cous cous* so he made his own rice to eat underneath it.

*  "not a huge fan of..." is one of my conversational pet peeves when discussing food with my beloved. Just say you don't like it! I eat these foods, I am not a huge fan of them. I didn't practice kissing the poster of cous cous that did NOT hang over my bed when I was a teenager! Now Parker Stevenson was another story...

I mentioned earlier that I only made half the recipe my friend gave me. Since the original recipe said "serves six" when I halved it for FatSecret purposes (I put it up to get the nutritional information) I though, surely I could get 4 servings out of that.

Well, as you see, I got 5 healthy sized servings out of it. (The one in the little red bowl is Mr. Crow's cous cous-free one. He is not a huge fan, as you know...)

Here is the glamor shot.  Shore looks pretty, don't it? I have to admit that it was a little spicier than I am used to. Not that it was hot - just very robust. I liked it fine. I don't know if it is going to be a huge repeater for me. However, it also has the feel of something that might be even better as leftovers.  I may try this again with a different bean and less cumin. And more coriander. Mmmmmmm, coriander!

Here is the recipe and if I can swing it, the nutritional info underneath.

Happy eating!

Crockpot Chicken Tagine

Modified from French Tart at Food.com - a delicious stew with chicken, chickpeas and apricots to be served over couscous.

Ingredients

• 3 1/2 servings chickpeas (one 14 oz. can)
• 3 servings near east cous cous
• 1/2 tbsp flour
• 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 3 small chicken breast
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp coriander ground
• 1/2 tsp cumin
• 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1/2 tsp turmeric
• 1/2 cup chicken stock
• 3 oz dried apricots
• 2 cloves garlic
• 2 tsps fresh chopped ginger root
• 1 large onion chopped
• 1 can 14 oz chopped tomatoes
• 1 tbsp tomato paste
• 1 1/2 tbsps honey

Directions

1. Heat oil in frying pan, saute chopped onion and garlic for 5-10 minutes.
2. Add chicken stock and gradually mix in flour until well mixed and not lumpy. Add honey and tomato paste and mix well.
3. Add herbs, spices and finely chopped ginger with salt and pepper to taste. Add tomato and mix well.
4. Pour above mix into crock pot.
5. Chop chicken into chunks and add to crock pot. Add chickpeas. Cut apricots into quarters and add them as well. Give everything a gentle stir to mix everything together well.
6. Cook on HIGH for 3-4 hours or LOW for 8 hours. Serve over cous cous.