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An easy one-pan dinner for Baked Moroccan Chicken using a secret ingredient! This flavourful dish full of spices, veggies and chicken thighs will easily become your go-to weeknight meal.
I’m often asked where I learned to cook. While I wish I had a cute story all about how I learned by shadowing my Mom around the kitchen as a small child, the truth is that I completely took my Mom’s cooking for granted while growing up.
I learned to cook because I had to. It never occurred to me that I might one day have to live without my Mom’s glorious cooking. And then that day arrived and I cried in my dorm room thinking I might starve through my college years.
…I was wrong.
I did in fact find a way to survive college though I will admit that at first it required consuming a lot of cereal. Eventually, I moved into my own apartment and the kitchen slowly became a less intimidating space. I balanced the frozen soups my Mom would send to Montreal with recipes I whipped up from some of my go-to blogs.
It’s in this time that I realized how incredibly fortunate I was to have grown up with someone who ensured we had a delicious meal on the table every night. I should add that she did so all while working a full time job, with FOUR kids. Yes, I am the spawn of a superhero.
After years of practice, I think my cooking skills may slightly resemble those of my mother, albeit with a bit more flair. My Mom can bake up a killer banana bread, but she’s certainly not making it from beans and I can assure you she’s not playing around with chocolate in her moroccan chicken. But no matter what she’s cooking up, she always knows how to feed a crowd.
So I made this dish in honour of Mother’s Day. To thank my beautiful Mother who takes the most amazing care of everyone around her all while making sure there’s a delicious meal on the table. I think she’d be proud of this Baked Moroccan Chicken dish and I may even get her on the secret ingredient train!
PrintBaked Moroccan Chocolate Chicken
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 1 hour
- Total Time: 1 hour 10 minutes
Ingredients
- 6 large carrots, peeled and chopped
- 1 large yellow onion, chopped
- 1/2 cup organic chicken stock
- 1/2 tsp sea salt
- 2 pounds boneless, skinless organic chicken thighs
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 1 tsp ground turmeric
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp dried ginger
- 1 tsp sea salt
- 1/4 cup freshly squeeze orange juice (about half an orange)
- 75 grams of green and black’s maya gold dark chocolate (60% chocolate)*
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1/4 cup sliced almonds
- 1/4 cup chopped apricots
- Fresh parsley for sprinkling
Instructions
- In a large bowl melt chocolate. Feel free to use your microwave in 20 second increments of a double-boiler on your stove top.
- Mix in spices, orange juice and olive oil.
- Add in chicken thighs and stir until well-coated.
- Cover bowl and allow to marinate for at least 1 hour.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Add chopped carrots and onion to a 9 x 13 inch baking dish and top with chicken stock and sea salt.
- Top with chicken thighs, any remaining marinade, almonds and apricots and cover with tinfoil.
- Bake for 50-60 mins or until chicken is cooked through fully.
Notes
*roughly 2.6 ounces of chocolate.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 4-6 people
Disclaimer: This post is sponsored by Green and Black’s Organic. I was compensated for my time, however all opinions are my own. Thanks for supporting the brands that help make THM possible and bring more delicious recipes your way!
Well that is so great you learned a bit about cooking from your mom! My circumstances were much different. My dad did all the cooking and not too much of it was truly homemade. My mom had her signature dishes but that was about it. I think all in all I must have got something from my dad because he loves the food network and making food and testing new things. But I definitely had a lot to learn after I got to college, and even after really, on how to approach cooking from scratch. It’s funny though because I never wanted to be the “woman in the kitchen”. I didn’t want to “have to do all the cooking”, but now, for the most part, I enjoy it. Plus Drew is such a momma’s boy (shh) that if I don’t cook, he is eating boxed mac n cheese and pizza rolls for dinner, mainly because he is just lazy. :-p
LOL Curt is exactly the same. So cool your Dad was into cooking. Love my Faj but he can basically just order in food haha
Do the apricots and almonds get added in before or after you bake the chicken?!
Ah yes! Before. Fixed the instructions.
I love this and look forward to trying it. Thanks for the shoutout. I am honoured to be your mama!
And you’re the best mama Maven there ever could be. MWAH!
I have been dying to branch out and try new ethnic foods, and I think this recipe is the perfect place to start. Moroccan spices sounds so delicious and comforting!
It truly is a comforting meal!
I learned to cook from my dad. He was more the cook in the family though I did learn some simple dishes from my mom. Like you I wasnt interested in it as much until college. In college I lived off of lots of salads and cans of beans and cereal. After college I moved back home and cooked a bit more but it wasnt until 2 years ago when I finally moved out and had my own kitchen that I was able to fully embrace my kitchen and finally make anything I wanted with only MY dirty dishes. I was always overwhelmed in my parents kitchen as we all made different meals, dishes everywhere all the time. This recipe looks so delicious. At first I wasnt aure about chocolate and chicken but with the spices you used, sounds good.
So cool your Dad is the chef in your family! I hear ya about too many cooks in the kitchen. It’s nice to get your own place and experiment on your own.
I sometimes put a tablespoon or two of coffee/cacao when I’m making chili – adds such a richness!
I LOVE adding chocolate to chili! Try adding it to burgers too. Adds a really nice richness!
Chocolate in chicken. What is this. I mean, I am willing to try new things but this is crazy-level chicken made into absolute perfection! I think Moroccan cuisine is delicious–DEFINITELY pinned this recipe because it just looks way too good!
Thanks, girly!
Will have to try this one! Quick, one dish, and chocolate. Trifecta!
Exactly! total winner…winner chicken dinner 😉
I learned to cook quite early, alongside my mom 😉 One of my first memories is whipping up some coconut chocolate balls to bring to kindergarten to celebrate my birthday. I’ve loved to experiment in the kitchen since I was little: until the past couple of days baking was my passion, then ever since I moved out of my parents’ house and started cooking every day it became second nature to me.
It’s thanks to my mom that we (my 2 sisters and I) are so open-minded when it comes to food. She cooked a rather healthy, plant-based diet, and we never secondguessed eating broccoli or squash 🙂
I’m more adventurous than my mom when it comes to tastes, secret ingredients and new recipes, but lately she’s been asking me for recommendations, so I sent her a few of my favourite blogs (yours was included) 😉
When we were in Mexico we tasted their famous chocolate (or rather cacao) chicken mole, but sadly we couldn’t really taste the chocolate which I found disappointing. Your recipe sounds intriguing, I’d love to try it but I don’t eat meat anymore. Any suggestion how I could try the sauce/marinade without the chicken?
Tofu would be a fabulous substitute! Love a good chicken mole sauce 🙂