Pomegranate chicken thighs, a truly delightful, exotic but simple meal all thanks to the majesty of the mighty pomegranate and humility of chicken thighs!
This pomegranate chicken thigh recipe is a strange one for me, it is one I can definitely say I know where my inspiration came from. Aside from my obvious, inspired by another blogger post that I do every now and then most of my dishes are a mish mash of inspiration. The chicken thighs in the this book are an idea from a cook book I picked up a while ago, Honey and Co a Cook Book, a book I have used a fair bit but this idea became one of my favourite recipes really quickly.
I have only kept the idea of using pomegranate chicken thighs and I have used bone in and skin on and reworked the side to use some Israeli cous cous and it rocks.
I love this dish, not just a little it is insanely tasty and a real show stopper, you can scale this recipe as much as you want and bring it out on a big platter for an autumn dinner party and watch people fight for the left overs!
Regular readers may pick up on the fact that these lovely plates are the second part of my purchase that I was waxing lyrical about in my recent Soupe au Pistou recipe, they are perfect for a dish like this and I am loving eating out of them and photographing them.
We are rapidly approaching the arrival of lazy time for us, our garden is very nearly all put away with just late crops like brassicas and roots left in the ground. So in theory I should have much more time to spend developing recipes and photographing them although myself and my wife are committed to improving our technical understanding of the Hungarian language this winter.
Whilst my ‘pub Hungarian’ is pretty good my technical understanding of the language is pretty poor so we are strapping on our student boots for the first time in a real long time! It should be worth a giggle as I am pretty much convinced I have lost the ability to write, it’s just something I never do.
I keep to do lists digitally the same goes for shopping lists, I think the last time wrote anything was on some sticks to identify seedlings a few years ago and to be honest I couldn’t read what I had written just a few minutes later… So much for the endless hours, nay days at school learning to write neatly and all proper like, it seems to be a skill I scarcely need, although making note in my new Hungarian Grammar book will be interesting!
Pomegranate Chicken Thighs with Israeli Cous Cous
Ingredients
- 4 Chicken Thighs Bone in Skin on
- 2 Tbsp Pomegranate Molasses
- 2 Garlic Cloves Finely Sliced
- 1 Tbsp Olive Oil
- 1/2 Tsp Black Pepper
- 150 g Israeli Cous Cous
- 25 g Flaked Almonds
- 1 Tbsp Pomegranate Molasses
- Seeds from 1 Small Pomegranate
- 30 g Golden Raisins
- 15 g Fresh Parsley Coarsely chopped
- 1 Tbsp Cooking Oil
Instructions
- Mix together the pomegranate molasses, sliced garlic cloves, olive oil and black pepper then allow to marinade for at least 4 hours, I typically leave over night.
- Preheat your oven to 200°C.
- Heat a dry frying pan over a medium heat and toast of your almonds and set aside.
- Remove the chicken from the marinade and season with salt, setting aside the marinade for later.
- Now heat the tablespoon of cooking oil in your dry pan and place the chicken thighs in the hot oil, skin side down and cook until you have a nice colour, then flip over and transfer to the oven and cook for 20 minutes or until the internal temperature reaches 73°C.
- Now cook your cous cous in salted boiling water as per the instructions on the packet and set aside.
- This is the ideal time to prepare the remainder of the ingredients for the cous cous salad.
- When the chicken is cooked set aside to rest for at least 5 minutes.
- Pour off all of the cooking oils and liquid that the chicken was cooked in with the exception of a scant table spoon and return to a medium high heat.
- Now add in the marinade we reserved from the chicken earlier and cook out for 2 minutes then add in the cous cous and coat and bring back to temperature.
- Finally remove from the heat add in the raisins, extra table spoon of pomegranate molasses and most of the pomegranate seeds, almonds and parsley reserving a little to garnish with afterwards.
This recipe sounds divine! I’m not sure if I can find pomegranate molasses here in Italy but if I can I’d love to try this recipe out!
I have been surprised what you can find when you give it a shot rural Hungary is hardly a food diversity poster boy 😉 However it is also easy to make, pomegranate juice, sugar and lemon juice reduced by 75% 🙂
I have grown to love Persian dishes and pomegranate molasses are great in so many things. I can imagine this is delicious!
Thanks Caroline, it is a very comforting style of food for me 🙂
I’m saving this Brian! It looks stunning. I have all the ingredients so it’s definitely a must try – lovely dish and beautiful pictures 👌👍
Thanks Ramona, it is a really special dish.
This looks amazingly delicious! The chicken has an awesome color, Brian!
Cheers Whitney, that be the sugars in the pomegranate molasses, it means you don’t get the crispy skin but the most wonderfully rich and tasty skin 🙂
Sweet and savory has my heart and I’m a sucker for anything with pomegranate!
Despite not really having a sweet tooth in general I am a real sucker for a bit of sweetness on a savoury dish, it is that whole sweet, sour and salty combo that I love 🙂
We had this for dinner last night, and it was absolutely delicious. I didn’t have the fresh pomegranate (not in season at the moment) so I am sure it is even better with this. And it also made great leftovers for lunch today. Thanks!
So glad you tried it and liked it Tania… The fresh pomegranate does add another level of sour sweetness but not completely essential, I make this in spring before pomegranates are in season in Europe and leave them out too.
Gorgeous dish. I love the pairing of sweet and savory in this dish. What a hearty and comforting dish for fall, and your photos are so warm and inviting!
Thanks Amanda, I love the whole sweet and savoury thing especially at this time of year.
I’m in love with your new crockery as well! It photographs beautifully! And these chicken thighs are calling to me.
Thanks Lisa, I have a feeling I will be tapping up the potter for some more 😮
Totally in love with this beautiful dish and your photographs. Just stunning!
Thank you Annie, very kind of you to say.
We just love using pomegranate this way. Those little pearls add so much flavour, without adding loads of extra calories.
Hehehee, yes that is exactly why I do it 😉