Moroccan Chicken with Lemon & Olives

Steve and I gave this dish two very high thumbs up. As per Steve "it was delicious, absaf*ckalutely delicious". I made a few modifications to the recipe as I didn't have the right ingredients on hand. They called for one ingredient that I didnt' have. Actually I've never even heard of it before. Preserved lemon. From what I can gather, it's supposedly salty. And this recipe also called for using a cut up whole chicken not boneless breasts as I'd prepared. All other ingredients were on board. And there were certainly a lot of ingredients.

Here goes. Combine all spices (paprika, ground cumin, ground ginger, tumeric (first time working with it), cinnamon and black pepper.) Roll chicken in spice mixture and let sit for one hour. To make long steps shorter, I cooked the first side of the chicken on medium heat with diced onions and minced garlic. Lid closed. Fifteen minutes later I flipped the breasts and added green olives (spanish manzanilla - with pimiento), raisins and lemon zest instead of preserved lemon. Then I added a little water and let it simmer for a 1/2 hour. Right before serving, I tossed the dish in fresh cilantro and curly parsley. I wanted the milder parsley to really show off the cilantro. I served this over basmati rice made from water only. No salt. No stock.

There's proof that this dish is as good as we're making it to be. I actually overcooked the chicken and it was still that delicious. The spices give the chicken a beautiful golden brown color. Steve was visually pleased with this dish as was I. Steve had a second piece. What initially drew me to this dish was the cinnamon. I love the flavor of cinnamon used in savory ways. I used to make a dish called porcupines years ago. I think it was from the Joy of Cooking. Anyway, they're these mini meat patties rolled in raw rice then cooked in a tomato based sauce. I used ground turkey though beef would be just as delicious. Not sure when I started adding cinnamon to the sauce but it made the dish ten times better. It made it interesting and the taste was pleasing. So for years now I've been searching for a nice cinnamon using dish. And this one caught my eye. I also thought the raisins (which become soft and less sweet when cooked in the broth) would go nicely with it. And of course you can't ignore how delicious green olives are. In your mouth, a sea of flavors some sweet and then Bam! Salty, briny green olives. Mmmm...makes you want to Eat Something Good!