Recipe: Moroccan Chicken Goujons with Yogurt & Mint Dip

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When I wrote my round up of the year post and I looked back at a lot of the recipes I shot when I was living in Los Angeles I realised that I have been neglecting the cooking side of things here on the blog since I moved back to London. Well, never fear because I have a lot of exciting recipes (look out for my favourite bean salad next week, and some more Student Suppers posts) planned for 2014 – Happy New Year to you all, by the way! To kick things off this morning I thought I’d share a quick dish I put together for lunch the other day (we had this by itself and a bottle of bubbly, hey, it was Christmas, but you can also serve it with a salad) using Sainsbury’s new Taste The Difference Moroccan Breadcrumbs that they were kind enough to send me to try out.
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I love how easy it is to create something exciting with them without having to worry about mixing your own breadcrumbs. I usually use matzo meal to bread and fry things and just a little salt and pepper, but these made for slightly spicy and really interesting chicken pieces. I particularly liked the little chunks of apricots that added a little sweetness. After making these for the three of us I still have about half a tub left, so I would like to use them in some homemade meatballs as it would mean I would not have to add any more spices or herbs to the mix, just an egg to bind it all together.

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The dip I’ve actually adapted very slightly from the original Ottolenghi cookbook. I find Yotam and Sammi’s recipes are usually fail safes for dips, and sometimes when I’ve tried recipes from any of their books I’ve written down what was in the dip and discarded the rest of the recipe! But honestly, you could just serve these with a little natural or Greek yogurt with a little salt, lemon juice and extra virgin olive oil mixed in to taste. This recipe serves six people for lunch, as a general rule you’ll need two chicken breasts for every three people.

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Moroccan Chicken Goujons with Yogurt & Mint Dip

  • Author: Rachel Phipps
  • Prep Time: 25 minutes
  • Cook Time: 10 minutes
  • Total Time: 35 minutes
  • Yield: Serves 6
  • Category: Party Food

Description

These easy spiced chicken dippers are so much nicer than shop brought chicken pieces, served with a delicious yogurt and mint dip.


Ingredients

Scale

For the Chicken

  • 4 Chicken Breasts
  • 2 Eggs
  • 4 tbsp Plain Flour
  • 1 Tub Sainsbury’s Taste The Difference Moroccan Breadcrumbs
  • 1 Large Glug Vegetable Oil
  • 1 Large Glug Groundnut Oil

For the Dip

  • 1/4 Cucumber
  • 225g (8 oz) Greek Yogurt (I use Total 0%)
  • 3/4 tsp Paprika
  • Juice 1/2 Lemon plus extra to taste
  • 1 1/2 tbsp Good Quality Extra Virgin Olive Oil
  • 1 1/2 tbsp Fresh Mint Leaves, chopped
  • Sea Salt
  • Freshly Ground Black Pepper

Instructions

  1. First make the yogurt dip. Peel the cucumber and chop it up into the smallest cubes you can manage.
  2. Add to a bowl with the lemon juice, paprika, yogurt, olive oil and freshly chopped mint. Mix well, and season to taste with the salt, pepper and more fresh lemon juice. If you accidentally add too much lemon or you feel the half a lemon was too much for your tastes in the first place, add a little sugar to the mix. Set aside in the fridge. 
  3. Slice the chicken breasts into goujons and bash out with your palm to flatten them a bit, to ensure they cook through.
  4. In three shallow dishes beat the egg into one, pour breadcrumb mix into the other, and add the flour into the third.
  5. To coat the chicken pieces dip them first in the flour, then the beaten egg and finally in the breadcrumbs.
  6. Heat a 50/50 mix so that it covered about a centimetre of a large saucepan. When the oil is hot, turn the heat down to medium fry the chicken on each side in a couple of batches, turning when golden brown on the bottom. Leave them to drain on kitchen towel until you’re ready to serve them warm or cold.

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