Chicken couscous

If you are the mother of a small child you know how difficult it is for you to increase the variety of dishes you prepare for you little child. They usually select only their preferred food and they reject anything else. I was in such a moment asking myself what could I do so my daughter diversify a bit her menu. I've got a hint one day from her creche that she ate couscous at lunch. It was like a flash light for me in that moment. Another thing that I know she likes is chicken. Combining the 2 ingredients seemed very tempting for me to try with her. This is how I arrived to this recipe.

Of course the critical moment was how to introduce this to my daughter. As it was 11AM when my couscous was ready, I've decided to wait til noon to put it in her plate. Meanwhile I could have had some time to make a photo of it. And when preparing the plate from the image I was caught by my daughter who became so excited of my hero food. I had no chance than to fill a plate for her as well and watch her eating it completely. And when I say completely I mean all... both chicken and couscous, not fishing the chicken from the couscous. It was this day when in her vocabulary appeared a new word that she kept repeating it during the entire lunch. You can imagine about what word I am talking about: "COUSCOUS" or in her language "kuku:s". Later, she enjoyed it for another 2 meals which for me was a big WOW.

Letting my child aside, I also had some spontaneous guests in the same day and I have served them my new dish. It was for the first time for them to try this. And they liked it so much that they have almost cleaned the plates. My husband who is also a fussy new dish eater didn't say a word and ate it all.

To conclude, I was not expecting that such a simple recipe would have a big success like this.

And now the recipe...


Ingredients:

• 4 chicken legs
• 750g instant couscous
• 3 tablespoons of olive oil (or you can use animal fat if desired)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon curcuma
• 1/2 teaspoon paprika
• parsley (for decoration)

Directions:

1.  Boil the chicken legs for 30 minutes in 2 liters of water.
2. Take out the chicken legs and let them cool for 10 minutes.
3. Remove the bones and cut the meat in small pieces.
4. In a big pot (4-5 liters size) add the oil and let it warm for 2-3 minutes.
5. Add the couscous in the heated oil, stir and let it cook for some minutes continuing to stir.
6. Add the water in which the chicken legs were boiled. You can add the entire quantity as I did or you can follow the instructions for the couscous.
7. Add the salt, curcuma and paprika and stir.
8. Let it cook for 5 minutes reducing the heating to low.
9. Serve decorated with parsley.

 
Recipe inspired from http://www.haisagatim.ro/2013/10/pui-cu-cus-cus.html