Chermoula Chicken

Chermoula Chicken is roasted chicken breasts and/or thighs smothered in an aromatic Moroccan pesto sauce. This slightly textured sauce is made with fresh herbs, garlic, lemon, and warm spices.

This green chermoula sauce makes your body feel alive. It’s a delicious and healing recipe made with parsley, cilantro, garlic, cumin, coriander, lemon and olive oil .

The parsley is alkalizing and has anti-inflammatory properties. It helps restore balance. Cilantro is a super food full of nutrients and is a powerful cleansing agent that gets rid of the toxic metals we are exposed to every day.

Cumin is well known for its positive effects on digestive health and its ability to cleanse and detoxify the body. Coriander is a very balancing seed that cools and calms the GI tract.

Chermoula is a great sauce that goes right into the food processor and pulsed until it reaches the desired consistency. Its good to leave it a little rough, not fully pureed. It only takes 5 minutes of work. It tastes even better if you make it an hour or so in advance to let the flavors develop.

Chermoula is often paired with fish and is excellent with chicken! It’s a great sauce to liven up your steamed or sautéed vegetables. You can add a few tablespoons to flavor your sautéed kale or spinach too.

It’s a sauce you will come back to many times. It will keep in your refrigerator for about a week.

This recipe is an easy one-skillet dish. I make it with chicken breasts and thighs for variety but you can use either one. First we brown the chicken pieces on the stovetop, then spread the green chermoula sauce over them allowing the flavors to seep into the chicken as it roasts in the oven. A cast iron pan works well for this because it easily goes from stovetop to oven.

This Chermoula Chicken is a perfect mid-week recipe. If you make the sauce up in advance it’s even easier.  Serve it with sautéed greens and roasted cauliflower.  I hope you give it a try.

If you give this recipe a try, please let us know what you think!

Give it some stars or leave a comment. ♥

If you like this recipe, try these other delicious chicken recipes:

Easy Chicken Piccata

Garlic Lemon Chicken with Anchovy Sauce and Cauliflower

3 Ingredient Honey Mustard Chicken

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Chermoula Chicken

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Roasted chicken breasts and/or thighs smothered in an aromatic Moroccan pesto sauce made with fresh herbs, garlic, lemon, and warm spices.

• Author: Ingrid DeHart - EatWellEnjoyLife.com
• Prep Time: 15
• Cook Time: 20
• Total Time: 35 minutes
• Yield: 4 1x
• Category: Main Dish Chicken
• Cuisine: Moroccan

Ingredients

Scale 1x2x3x

• 2 – 2 1/2 pounds chicken thighs and/or breasts, bone-in, skin-on, trimmed of excess fat (I used 2 chicken breasts and 4 chicken thighs, but they were small ones)*
• Celtic sea salt and fresh ground pepper
• 1 tablespoon ghee or olive oil

Chermoula Sauce

• 1 1/2 cups packed parsley leaves
• 1 1/2 cups packed cilantro leaves and tender stems
• 2 small cloves garlic, chopped
• 1/2 teaspoon Celtic sea salt
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
• 1/8 teaspoon cayenne (optional)
• 1/3 cup olive oil
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice

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Instructions

1. Sprinkle the chicken with salt and pepper and let rest while you prepare the sauce.
2. Put  parsley, cilantro, garlic, salt, cumin, coriander and cayenne (if using) into a food processor. Pulse several times to chop up the parsley and cilantro.
3. With the motor running, add in the olive oil.
4. Add lemon juice, process until you have a rough paste.
5. Heat the ghee or olive oil on medium high heat in a large cast iron pan.
6. Preheat oven to 425°F.
7. Pat the chicken pieces dry and add them to the pan skin side down. Let them cook until golden brown, about 5 to 6 minutes.
8. Turn them over and cook a few minutes more.
9. Remove the chicken from the pan and pour off the fat.
10. Return the chicken to the pan and spread the chermoula sauce on both sides of the chicken. Save the rest of the sauce.
11. Roast the chicken in the oven skin-side up, for 10 to 15 minutes, until the chicken is cooked through and the temperature near the bone is 165°F. If the breasts are done before the thighs remove them from the pan and cook the thighs until done.
12. Serve with extra chermoula sauce on the side.

Notes

You can make it will all thighs or all breasts instead of a combination.