MM's Cheap Eats: Chicken and couscous one-pot

CHICKEN COUSCOUS: Cheap & tasty for two

By Melanie Hughes

MM's resident foodie is back with another of her low-budget dishes. This week she makes things even simpler by letting you cook it all in a single pot!

Chicken and couscous one-pot

Serves 2

2 Chicken breasts

100g couscous

1 courgette

1 onion

1 garlic glove

1 tsp Cumin

1 tsp Ground Coriander

Pinch dried chilli flakes (as much or as little as you’d
like)

Pinch dried Thyme

Half pint of chicken stock

1 tsp olive oil

Salt and pepper to season

This is such an easy dish that you can rock up in no time, and there’s only one pot needed for cooking!  

If you’re bored of potatoes, rice or pasta then why not try something new like couscous or bulgar wheat? I opted for couscous simply because it’s much quicker to cook but they’re both cheap and really filling (with fewer calories than the other carbs mentioned!).

Firstly, season the chicken and if you have time coat it in flour, that’s not essential though, but make sure you season it with salt and pepper then fry it in a decent sized pan with olive oil.

Fry until golden on both sides, but not necessarily cooked right through, then remove from the pan and chop into smaller pieces, as if chopping it for a curry.

Then fry the onions, courgette and garlic on a medium heat for a few minutes until softened and then add the herbs and spices and fry for another minute to draw out the flavours.

While doing this boil the kettle and make up the chicken stock. Add a splash of white wine, if available, to the sautéing veg and then add the chicken back to the pan.  

Fry for a minute or two then add the couscous. Just sprinkle it into the pan then stir it around in order to soak up all the flavours then simply add the stock and turn off the heat.

Add enough stock to just cover all the couscous and then cover straight away and take off the heat. If you don’t have a lid for your pan then just cover it with tin foil or a plate.

You can prepare the stock before adding it to the dish but just make sure it’s still quite hot when adding it otherwise it wont be hot enough to be soaked up by the couscous.

Then just serve up along with some salad or crusty bread.

CHICKEN COUSCOUS: Nice and simple, chicken couscous one-pot