Moroccan Chicken

This is also known as Chermoula Chicken.  Chermoula is a spice paste made with among others, turmeric and fresh coriander leaves.

I found this recipe in Chef Wan's cookbook, Simply Sedap and tried it two years ago. That initial attempt was a disappointment to me because I did not find the spice paste to be anything exciting. If you ask me about the taste, I really cannot put my finger to it. 

Then I put this business of roasting with chermoula paste behind me. A year later, I decided to give it another go. Why? I wanted to revisit because who knows, I could have gotten my proportions of the ingredients wrong or my judgement was clouded by some other issues, whatever they may be.

Again, I was not happy with the outcome. Maybe it was just me. Chermoula does not suit my tastebuds. Or another possibility is that there was an error in the recipe. Believe me, that has happened before. With due respect to Chef Wan, who is my favorite Malaysian chef, I tried one recipe in the same book with disastrous results.

It was a Beef Kuzi recipe which I cooked for a Chinese New Year dinner many years ago. I had to throw away the whole pot. I followed the recipe to a tee and yet the flavors came out all wrong.

Subsequent to that experience, I discovered some mini cookbooks which were extracts from Chef Wan's Simply Sedap. The book on meat dishes had all of the meat recipes from Simply Sedap except for that one particular recipe. Ah! I felt so vindicated. So it was not me, it was the recipe.

Now coming back to this Moroccan Chicken, this is my third attempt. Why? Because I saw a similar dish featured in Time Out Kuala Lumpur. 

Photo credit : Time Out Kuala Lumpur (The photo looked better in the magazine)

This was the Chermoula Chicken served at Fuego, and the way it was described sure sounded so delicious. So I just had to have another go, knowing jolly well that the recipe at Fuego could be different. Besides the cooking method is different too where the chicken is cooked via sous vide and then grilled.

I'm happy to say that this time I appreciated the chicken and the spice paste. In fact, it tasted a lot better the following day. So yes, this chermoula spice paste is to my liking and I see great potential in tweaking the recipe to suit me better.

Moroccan Chicken
Recipe sauce : Adapted from Simply Sedap (page 90)

Ingredients :
- 1 chicken, halved
- salt to taste

Chermoula Spice (finely ground)
- 3 red chillies
- 1 tablespoon powdered chili
- 1 tablespoon smoked paprika
- 1 tsp powdered turmeric
- 1 tsp powdered cumin
- 1 big onion
- 5 cloves garlic
- a generous handful coriander leaves
- 60ml olive oil
- juice from 1/2 lemon

Method :
1. Rub the chicken with salt and chermoula spice and marinate overnight in the fridge.
2. Before roasting, bring the chicken out from the fridge to come to room temperature.
3. Roast the chicken at 180C for (breast side down) 45-50 minutes turning at half time.

This post is also linked to Cook-Your-Books #28 hosted by Joyce of Kitchen Flavours.