Chicken – Pseudo Moroccan

I needed a quick cooking chicken recipe for a summer day when most of it happened on the outside grill.  I wanted something from the Middle East, may be Morocco or thereabouts.

• 1 teaspoon Cumin Seeds
• 1 teaspoon Coriander seeds
• 1 teaspoon Fennel Seeds

Toast all of these over Medium heat till they are fragrant.  Cool and grind fine in a coffee grinder that you have dedicated to grind spices… You have one of these don’t you??  You can always resort to a mortar and pestle and elbow grease… Mix in
the following

• 1 teaspoon of Cayenne pepper (adjust down or up based on your preferences)
• 1/2 teaspoon of turmeric powder.

• Lay the chicken breast cutlets out on a Foil lined plate.
• Drizzle Olive oil over the chicken and rub to coat.
• Season the chicken with salt and a few grinds of pepper.
• Sprinkle the spice mixture evenly over the oiled chicken pieces on both sides and let them rest for 15 minutes on the counter top.
• Turn on the grill and get it heated to medium hot.
• Grill the chicken pieces quickly over the hot grill.  It should not take more than a minute per side.  I find that cooking is a lot more even if you move the chicken to an unused spot on the grill when flipping so you don’t get a lowered temperature
  from the old cooking spot.

Rest the chicken for a few minutes for the juices to re distribute in the meat.  Squeeze fresh lemon juice over the chicken and serve with some good Pita Bread and a Middle Eastern Salad.  We did not do it last night when we had this dish, but I think a Spanish Albariño would go splendidly with this one.