Harissa Chicken & Couscous One-Pot

Ingredients

• 700 g chicken thigh fillets, cut into large chunks
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 400 ml chicken stock
• 1 red pepper, deseeded and diced
• 1 courgette, diced
• 1 x 400g tin chopped tomatoes
• salt and black pepper
• 1 large onion, diced
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 3 tbsp rose harissa paste
• 250 g giant couscous, or regular couscous
• 1 lemon, juiced
• 15g fresh coriander or mint, to serve
• 4 tbsp plain yogurt, to serve
• Warm pitta bread, to serve

Method

1. Heat the olive oil in a large, wide, lidded casserole over a high heat until it shimmers. Pat the chicken dry — water means steam, and steam means no browning — then season generously with salt and pepper.
2. Brown the chicken in two batches, 4–5 minutes a side, until deeply golden. All at once and the pan crowds, water comes out, and you've boiled the meat instead of browning it. Lift the chicken out onto a plate and set aside; it'll finish cooking in the sauce.
3. Drop the heat to medium. Add the onion and red pepper to the pan, scraping up any chicken fond stuck on the base — that's flavour, not mess. Cook for about 5 minutes until the onion is translucent and the pepper has lost its raw edge.
4. Stir in the garlic and cook just until fragrant — 30 seconds, no more. Burnt garlic turns the whole dish bitter. Add the cumin and harissa paste and bloom them in the oil for another minute or so until the kitchen smells smoky and properly fragrant — raw spices taste dusty, bloomed spices taste of themselves.
5. Tip in the chopped tomatoes and courgette along with the chicken stock, stirring well. The stock breaks the tomatoes down so they taste of summer fruit, not tin. Cook for 3 minutes to take the raw edge off.
6. Return the chicken to the pan with any resting juices. Bring up to a gentle simmer, cover, and cook for 15 minutes until the chicken is cooked through and the sauce has thickened to a rust-red gloss. Taste the sauce now and adjust the salt — the harissa carries heat but the salt makes everything else show up.
7. Stir the couscous straight into the pan, cover, and pull off the heat. Leave to stand for 10 minutes — the couscous drinks up the liquid and turns tender.
8. Stir in the lemon juice and fluff the couscous through the sauce with a fork. Taste, season, taste again — adjust now, not at the table.
9. Spoon into shallow bowls, dollop the yoghurt over the rust-red sauce, and scatter the torn coriander or mint leaves generously across the top.