Garlic Butter Chicken with Hummus & Couscous
Ingredients
- 500 g couscous
- 400 g tinned chickpeas
- 100 g dried apricots
- 100 g sultanas
- 750 ml chicken stock hot
- 8 skinless chicken breasts
- 4 tbsp olive oil
- 100 g garlic butter
- 2 lemon zest and juice
- 500 g red pepper hummus
- 2 good handful flat leaf parsley
- extra virgin olive oil for drizzling
- sea salt
- ground black pepper
Equipment
2 x Chopping board
Chopping knife
Large bowl
Measuring jug
Large frying pan
Tongs
Instructions
- Prepare the cous cous. Roughly chop the apricots.
- Place in a bowl along with the couscous and chickpeas, and pour over the hot stock. Stir and cover with cling film, then leave to stand for 20 minutes until the couscous has soaked up all the liquid.
- Butterfly the chicken breasts: put each one on a chopping board and with the flat of your hand on top, use a sharp knife to slice into the thick side of the breast, being careful not to cut all the way through.
- Open out the breasts and season well.
- Heat the olive oil and garlic butter in a large frying pan and fry the chicken for 2–3 minutes, then turn over, add the lemon zest and fry for a further 3–4 minutes until golden on both sides. Set aside to rest for 5 minutes.
- Finely chop the parsley.
- Mix the sultanas and parsley through the couscous with a good squeeze of lemon juice.
- To serve, spread a dollop of hummus onto the plate. Spoon the couscous on top of the hummus. Slice the chicken thinly and pile on top of the couscous. Drizzle with the juices from the pan and a little extra-virgin olive oil and serve.
Notes
This is the recipe that gave me the idea for my cookbook Meals in Minutes – it’s the perfect example of a dinner for which the ingredients can be bunged into a shopping basket on the way home from work. Its key cheat ingredients are garlic butter, shop-bought hummus and a couscous salad. You can get some fantastic prepared couscous salads; try one with feta and lemon or Moroccan with sultanas or chargrilled veg – you could even try a cauliflower couscous in this recipe.
You may need to cook the chicken in batches if you don't have a big enough pan.
Nutrition
Calories: 521kcal