Mellow-spiced chicken and chickpeas recipe

Warming spices and tender chicken with chickpeas in a thick, tasty stew.

This mellow-spiced chicken and chickpeas is such a pleasing dish to serve up. It ticks all the boxes of a delicious, comforting stew, and it's surprisingly low calorie too. The chicken thighs are nicely crisped and golden from where you brown them at the beginning of the recipe. Then the sauce they cook in has everything - a lovely eastern spiciness from the cumin and coriander seeds and a delicious creaminess from the yoghurt. All that and it's only 309 calories per portion. It's also high in protein (from the chickpeas as well as the meat) - a great healthy chicken recipe if you're following a low calorie diet, but one you can also serve to your whole family.

Ingredients

• 8 chicken thighs, skin still on
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 2 onions, peeled and cut into thin wedges
• 2-4 fat cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
• 1 tbsp each cumin seeds, coriander seeds and paprika
• 410g can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
• 300ml (½ pint) hot chicken stock
• 2-3 tbsp Greek yogurt
• A handful of fresh coriander leaves, to garnish
• Bread, to serve

Method

1. Trim any excess fat off the chicken thighs. Season the meat. Heat the oil in a large frying pan, pack in the thighs, skin-side down, and cook for 8-10 mins until the skin is a good golden colour. Turn them over and cook for another 5 mins. Take out with tongs and set aside on a plate. Drain off all but about 1 tbsp fat from the pan.
2. Add the onion wedges and garlic to the pan and cook for 5 mins. Meanwhile, roughly grind the spices in a pestle and mortar. Stir them into the pan and cook for 5 mins.
3. Add the chickpeas and stock. Bring to the boil, put the chicken thighs back in, skin-side up, and simmer, uncovered, for about 15-20 mins until the chicken is tender.
4. Stir in spoonfuls of Greek yogurt and let it warm through, but don’t allow it to boil. Sprinkle with coriander leaves and serve hot with bread.

Top tips for making mellow-spiced chicken and chickpeas

If you don't want to serve this with bread, you could make some low fat potato wedges or brown rice. For a really low carb option, just steam some leafy green veg such as kale, which will soak up some of the lovely sauce too.

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