This fragrant chicken is brilliant as an easy midweek meal. It's basically a stir fried chicken recipe with North African flavours and is perfect in a pitta bread or with couscous.
I am a coriander (cilantro) addict and this fragrant chicken is a recipe I love to top with lots and lots of fresh coriander. So, much coriander in fact that there wasn't quite as much left as I thought when I took the photos for this dish.
Do be a little more generous if you make it yourself as the coriander really makes this fragrant chicken dish. Lots and lots of coriander. I know it's a herb but I find I'm using it almost like spinach these days!
This dish is basically a recipe for marinated chicken which is then stir fried. You don't have to marinate the chicken though. I've made this recipe in less than 20 minutes when I've been in a hurry and it's still really tasty.
The marinade just makes it even more tasty though. I like to marinate for a minimum of one hour but if you're going to work you can put the chicken in the marinade in the morning then cook it in the evening. You can even mix up the marinade the night before to make things easier for yourself.
What to eat with this Fragrant Chicken?
I like to eat the fragrant chicken with pitta breads, tomato salad and some salad greens. It's also great on top of couscous and the leftovers can be put in a sandwich the next day. You can even enjoy it cold.
A Chicken Recipe the Children Love Too!
This is a recipe that both children will eat, especially if I have taken the chilli seeds out to make the recipe more child friendly! Little Miss Spice loves marinated chicken and likes to eat hers in a wrap. Master Spice loads his with extra toppings including cheese and barbecue sauce.
I like it with cheese (ideally just a little feta) but the barbecue sauce is a step too far for me. A little extra harissa goes nicely though!
Can you Adapt this Chicken Recipe?
This stir fried fragrant chicken recipe is very easy to adapt. Just use whatever vegetables you want to use up. A few courgettes (zucchini), thinly sliced carrots or green beans would all go well.
You can vary the spicing. If you don't want it to be too hot then remove the seeds of the chilli pepper. If you like your food hot then go a head and add an extra one. Or even two!
I like to put lots of fresh coriander (cilantro) on top, more than you can see in the pictures. If you're not such a fan of coriander then parsley also works well.
Storing the leftovers
You can store the leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for at least 48 hours. I often then reheat in the microwave.
You can even freeze the leftovers for up to three months. Just make sure you defrost and then reheat thoroughly before eating.
Recipe
Fragrant Chicken
Ingredients
- 2 chicken breasts sliced into strips
- 1 clove garlic crushed
- 5 g ginger grated or finely diced
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon ground coriander
- ½ teaspoon chilli powder
- 1 red chilli pepper optional
- 1 lemon juiced
- 1 tablespoon oil
- 2 tablespoon pine nuts
- 1 red onion sliced
- 1 pepper (red, yellow, green or orange) sliced
- 15 g fresh coriander (cilantro) roughly chopped
Instructions
- If you have time in advance, combine the dry spices, ginger, chilli, garlic and lemon juice and marinate the chicken for an hour. If you don't have time for this then just go straight to step 2.
- Heat a little oil in a wok and then add the chicken and spices from step 1.
- While the chicken is cooking, toast the pine nuts in a dry frying pan until they are slightly browned.
- When the chicken is cooked on all sides, add the red pepper and onion to the wok. Continue to cook for about 4 minutes until the chicken is cooked through.
- Add the pine nuts and coriander leaf and stir through.
- Serve with couscous or in pitta breads
Notes
Nutrition
Pin for Later
More Easy Chicken Recipes
Chicken is such a versatile meat and we eat easy chicken dinners at least every week! Here are a few of them.
You might also like my lemongrass chicken stir fry and my ras el hanout chicken tray bake.
Keep in touch
Do let me know if you make this fragrant chicken recipe. I love to get feedback from readers.
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Places I'm sharing this North African Chicken Stir Fry
Cook Once Eat Twice here at Searching for Spice
Cat | Curly's Cooking
This looks delicious and so colourful, I love the sound of it in a pitta! I'm afraid I don't like fresh coriander at all, but the ground coriander in your recipe I could cope with just fine 🙂
Corina Blum
It's funny how some people hate coriander. Luckily I love it and it's one of the herbs I use a lot too!
Monika Dabrowski
Great idea to cook this dish in a wok! Great flavours too!
Corina Blum
Thanks Monika! I'm so pleased you like the flavours.
Jacqui Bellefontaine
Another fabulous recipe from you Corina, Your dishes are always so colourful and tasty. Bring on the Coriander. Thank you for sharing on #CookBlogShare
Corina Blum
Thanks so much Jacqui. I do like colourful food and coriander is such a great herb!
Jo Allison / Jo's Kitchen Larder
Stir fries are simply perfect as meals in a hurry. Your North African flavours more than work for me and I would definitely flood the dish with coriander too! I do love its fragrance that works so well with so many dishes! Lovely recipe! 🙂
Corina Blum
I love coriander and I'm so pleased you like this too! I normally use more than you can see on here but I was running out on the day I took the pictures!
Cliona Keane
The flavour of this practically jumps out of the screen! Plus it's so colourful, perfect to impress at the dinner table!
Corina Blum
Thanks Cliona! I'm so pleased you like it - It's a great quick and easy dish!
Farrah
I love the sound of this marinade! Will definitely have to try it out soon! :]!
Corina Blum
Thanks Farrah! I hope you like it - It's so easy and tasty too.
Katerina
With so much coriander, fragrant is the right word for this chicken. I believe that the flavor would be exquisite.
tasteofbeirut
Coriander or cilantro is such a mainstay of the Lebanese diet, I don't think we could eat anything without it! This recipe looks simple and full of flavor
Year on the Grill
OK... here's my ignorance... Where would I be likely to find coriander. I can get the ground version, no problem, but I can not think if I have ever seen it "Leaf and stalks".
And I have an odd question for you... I have committed myself to a vegetarian evening main course meal a week. In your vast repository that is your blog, could you point me to one of your favorites???
Dave
Corina
Coriander leaf is called cilantro in US English. I forgot to put both words in the recipe but will update it. One of my favourite standby vegetarian recipes is falafels. They're another thing that are great with cilantro in and plenty of cumin and chilli. Good luck wiht the vegetarian recipes.
Year on the Grill
Silly me... I knew that, just a senior moment (and too lazy to do a Wikipedia search. Thanks... off to hunt down your falafel recipe
Joanne
I love the taste and smell of coriander and when a recipe calls for it, I definitely tend to go a bit overboard and use more than it suggests. What a delicious dish!