Chicken with Chickpeas ~ all middle east

[Twitchin Kitten]

Again I was looking for something different to make for dinner and went to my trusty Middle Eastern cookbooks for ideas.

This is an EASY dish to make and we simply served it with the chickpeas and a side salad and pita bread.

The bright yellow coloring from the turmeric gave the dish an exotic yet festive look and it's got a tiny spicy 'kick' to it too. Lovey dish that I'll be making time and again.

Note: I didn't cook the chicken whole as the recipe calls for because my skillet lid is flat and it wouldn't close tightly, so I quartered it and it cut the cooking time down quite a bit. I still needed to let the sauce reduce down a bit so I removed the chicken pieces and turned up the flame to let it reduce down to a nice sauce.

Ferakh Bel Hummus
Chicken with Chickpeas

serves 4 - 6

Ingredients:

• 1 onion, finely chopped
  
• 2 Tbsp vegetable oil
  
• 3/4 tsp turmeric
  
• A 3 1/4 - 4 pound chicken
  
• 1 1/4 cups chickpeas, soaked overnight
  
• Juice of 1 lemon, or more to taste
  
• 2 - 4 cloves garlic, crushed
  
• Black pepper or a pinch of cayanne or ground chili powder
  
• Salt
  

Fry the onion in the oil in a large saucepan until golden, then stir in the turmeric.

Put in the chicken and turn it until it is yellow all over. Add 2 1/2 cups water, the drained chickpeas, lemon juice, garlic and pepper.

Bring to the boil and simmer, covered for 1 hour or longer, until the chicken is very tender, the chickpeas are soft, yellow and lemony wand the liquid is reduced.

Turn the chicken occasionally and add water so that there is plenty of liquid sauce. Add salt when the chickpeas have softened.

Adjust the seasoning and cut up the chicken.

Serve hot.

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