Spiced chicken with roasted pumpkin couscous bowl

I know it's quite a mouthful, the recipe name. I love beautiful photos on Instagram about bowl food. Or Buddha bowl or rice bowl. I wanted to create a bowl like that but usually, rice for dinner doesn't go very well, especially with my little one who takes ages to finish a meal, 45 minutes to be exact. Anyway, I made a couscous bowl while keeping Morrocan flavours in my mind.
The chicken is rubbed with a Morrocan spice mix and the pumpkin is also roasted with almost the same spices.  I Baked the chicken along with the pumpkin and chickpeas.  You can grill the chicken if you like. But one thing you have to keep in mind is to make sure you don't dry out the chicken as chicken breast tends to go dry very fast.

Roasting the pumpkin and chickpeas along with the chicken saves time and less washing up

Roasted pumpkin

The pumpkin takes little time to roast when you cut it into small bite-size cubes.  Served the chicken, the toasted pumpkin and chickpeas on some couscous with a simple tomato-cucumber salad along with a minty yoghurt sauce.

Recipe: Spiced Chicken with Roasted Pumpkin Couscous Bowl

Ingredients

Spiced Chicken

• 3 chicken breasts, boneless, skinless

   1/4 tsp turmeric

    2tsp ground cumin

    2tsp ground coriander

    1/2 tsp finely grated ginger

    1/4 tsp cinnamon

    1 tsp chili powder

    1 tsp honey

    1 tbsp olive oil

    salt to taste

Roasted Pumpkin and chickpeas

• 400g pumpkin cut into bite-size cubes
  1 cup chickpeas ( canned or boiled ones)
  1/4 tsp turmeric
  1/2 tsp chilli flakes
  1 tsp cumin seeds
  pepper
  1 tbsp olive oil
• 1/2 red bell pepper, deseeded and cut into bite size pieces

Salad

• 
  
  2 plum tomatoes, chopped

  1 small cucumber, chopped

  1 spring onion ( or small onion) chopped

   lime juice (1/2 lime)

Couscous

• 1 1/4 cup couscous
  1 1/2 cups boiling water
  salt 
  1 tsp olive oil

Yogurt sauce

• 1 cup yogurt ( plain)
   1 garlic clove, grated
   2 tbsp finely chopped mint leaves
    lime juice

Directions

Roasting Chicken, pumpkin and chickpeas.

1. Mix all the spice rub ingredients rub it all over the chicken breast and leave to marinate for 15- 30 minutes.
2. While the chicken marinades, mix the pumpkin and chickpeas with the chili flakes, cumin seeds turmeric, salt, pepper, and olive oil. 
3. Take a large baking tray, layer the pumpkin chickpea mix in one layer on one side of the tray, then place the chicken pieces on the other side of the tray. Pop into a hot oven ( about 20 degrees C) for about 45 minutes, till the chicken is cooked through and the pumpkin is cooked and slightly golden.
   Once cooked, remove the chicken pieces and leave to rest, place the pumpkin and chickpea into a bowl.

Couscous

1. Add some boiling water  ( about 1/4 cup ) into the empty baking pan in which you cooked the chicken and vegetables. Swirl around and pour the whole contents into a large bowl. Add the couscous, salt olive oil and the remaining hot water and cover and set aside.

Salad

1. Mix all the ingredients. season with salt and pepper. set aside

Yogurt sauce

1. Mix the yoghurt with the garlic, mint, salt and a little lime juice and tiny bit of pepper. 

To assemble the bowl

1. To assemble, fluff the couscous and add a good spoonful on couscous, then slice the chicken into thin slices and arrange on one side of the bowl. Add a helping of salad, then a helping of pumpkin and chickpeas. Finally, Spoon some yoghurt sauce into the middle.