Another new recipe with dates...

I received a comment in yesterday's post asking what kind of dates we used. Since I really don't know much about them I double checked and they were of the Medjool variety. I will have to do some research, but in the meantime, is there much difference between varieties?

Knowing that I was going to have some leftover, I went through the large pile of untried recipes (which I swear is getting larger no matter how many we try every week) to see if I happened to have anything. I had one that would work for dinner - Cinnamon-Spiced Moroccan Chicken.

This chicken dish has so many interesting flavors happening. Sweet, spicy and savory all at once with cinnamon, hot chili powder, cumin along with Granny Smith apples and of course the dates. The tender chicken took on a golden yellow hue from the turmeric. Leaving the dry spices on the chicken overnight seemed to enhanced the flavor quite a bit. If you are running short on time you can just coat the chicken before you cook, but if you have a couple minutes I think it greatly benefited from sitting for a few hours. Pretty different than what we would normally do with chicken, but surprisingly very good.

I probably would have served this with couscous but I had some red potatoes to use up and a recipe itching to be made. Along side the chicken we had Roasted Potato Salad with Peppers and Parmesan. Simple roasted potatoes made fancy with roasted red peppers, jalapeno and shaved parmigiano. The outside of the potatoes remain crisp with the insides fluffy and soft. The jalapeno lended a nice heat, but I think I would reduce the red pepper next time as it overwhelmed the other flavors a little.

Recipes
Cinnamon-Spiced Moroccan Chicken
Roasted Potato Salad with Peppers and Parmesan