I found this recipe a couple years ago in Cooking Light and have made it regularly ever since. I don’t always make it the same way: I’ve used parsley rather than cilantro; forgotten the cilantro; used wine to deglaze the pan rather than chicken broth; added celery; had no turmeric and used curry powder instead (which was surprisingly successful. Ginger and cinnamon go well with curry, and turmeric is a huge component of curry powder). We like to serve it over couscous (whole wheat, organic biensur), or rice in a pinch. But our little guy doesn’t like either, so we add rough chopped potatoes when the chicken is returned to the pan.

It’s a more involved recipe than the chicken for company I did in the last post, so read this through a couple times and make sure you have everything ready before you begin. The dish freezes well (although potatoes, if used, will have a mushy consistency — it’s better to freeze everything but the spuds if you have cooked it with them; you can cook some more when you are ready to eat what you froze), and it looks pretty on a platter, as you can see below.

I’ve talked before about chicken thighs as a better tasting alternative to boneless skinless breasts. I have made this with the latter, but it just tastes better with the boneless skinless thighs. Here’s how I make a recipe that feeds the three of us without leftovers.

Take a package of at least six — and better eight — boneless skinless chicken thighs. Rinse, pat dry and put in a dish with a couple tablespoons of lemon juice. If you are using fresh lemons you’ll need about two. Wash them first and use a zester to take the rind off of them and put it aside. You’ll need it later. Put the chicken in the fridge for about a half-hour, flipping the chicken around about half way through that time.

Meanwhile, chop a small to medium sized onion. You want the pieces to be no more than a half inch square. If using, finely mince a clove of garlic. Grate about a tablespoon of fresh ginger. You can use a teaspoon of dried, but it’s not the same flavor. Dried ginger has been cooked and has less brightness to it. Chop about a dozen green olives (roughly choped). If you are using bottled lemon juice, you still need lemon rind, in which case, why are you using bottled juice? So use your zester for the rind. If you have only bottled lemon juice and no lemons, you can do this without the rind. Put all these pre-chopped things aside.

In a dish, take a couple tablespoons of flour, a dash or two of cayenne pepper, a good teaspoon of turmeric, about half a teaspoon of salt, and a few grinds of black pepper. Mix these items well. Heat a heavy skillet over medium-high heat. If it’s a non stick skillet, add about a teaspoon of oil; in a cast iron or regular skillet, make it about a tablespoon.

Take the chicken thighs and dredge each one on both sides through the flour mixture.

Alternative to doing them individually: put the flour mixture in a zip top bag and add in all the thighs and shake it up well until they are coated well. Whichever way, add the thighs to the hot pan. Cook about three minutes on each side over medium-high heat and remove from the pan to a dish; put it aside.

Add the ginger, garlic and onions to the pan and stir for a couple minutes until the onions are starting to get translucent. Add about half a cup of chicken broth to the pan and scrape up all the bits stuck on the bottom. You may want to add a little more broth if it seems to be thickening a lot. Add the olives and lemon zest to the pan, a couple of chopped potatoes if you have a kid who won’t eat couscous, and either a half teaspoon of cinnamon or a whole cinnamon stick (which you’ll remove at the end). Add the chicken back to the pan along with any juices on the plate. Reduce the heat to medium or medium low and cover. Check it every 15 minutes or so and make sure that there is still liquid in the pan. It only takes about a half hour to finish up, but you can actually leave it on simmer for quite a while.

This is what it looks like when it’s done:

Put it on a platter, either by itself or over rice or couscous — be sure to pour all the sauce over it. Add the cilantro on top. Dig in. It’s realy quite good.

Here’s a last warning:

Turmeric is still used as a vegetable dye. It will stain your clothing yellow. It will stain your countertops yellow. Wipe up splatters quickly; use a paste of baking soda and water to clean counters; pray over any white clothing you get the stuff on. Or use bleach. Or a dry cleaner. Did I mention the stuff stains? Seriously: worse than beet juice or carrot juice.

Eat up, Mia!