My Maghreb Kitchen: Chicken Fried Rice & Chicken Rice Soup

The idea for this post came many months ago when I first got my hands on a bottle of soy sauce and put it to good use on some leftovers.  To start at the beginning, it’s important to first understand the popularity and availability of rotisserie chicken in Morocco.  Every few blocks or so, it is more than likely that you’ll come across a restaurant with a large multi-level rotisserie filled with chickens at various stages of roasting.   At the tables, plates of chicken, French fries, rice and a small bowl of tomato sauce accompany bread in front of many diners.  This is a widely enjoyed meals by many.  All restaurants have their own variations of the type of rice and tomato sauce they serve, and some even provide a small plate of giblets and juices for dunking your bread in.  Additionally, some places offer a full compliment of condiments including mayonaisse, ketcup, dijon mustard, and harissa.  It is one of the few restaurant dishes that doesn’t necessarily have a Moroccan flavor to it so foreigners looking for some familiar flavors would be wise to order this dish. 

It is, of course, a staple in our house too.  We’ve been eating this chicken from the very first days we arrived in Morocco sometimes buying half a chicken at a time to share between whomever was eating at the time.  Over time we realized a few things about our regular chicken place.  They have great fries, but their rice is almost inedible.  We don’t like their tomato sauce and have no use for giblets.  We forgo the bread and ask for double fries instead of all the accompaniments most of the time. We love to dunk our French fries and chicken in mustard, so we always ask for a good amount of it.  We go there so often, but the workers still seem to need directions for our order everytime. 

Our favorite place for roasted chicken platters is Brador Pizza Restaurant because their rice is deliciously spiked with veggies, cloves and herbs.  They also serve roasted garlic and herb potatoes, plus fries and their tomato sauce is excellent.  Any leftovers from there are promptly eaten as a snack later in the evening.  One of the best parts of this meal is the price, usually 20-25 DH at any given place which is $2.60-3.25 as of today’s exchange rate- for all that food!

Lately, I’ve been asking for the saffron rice from our regular place because I eat half of the chicken and fries for dinner and use the leftover chicken and rice for a couple of lunch dishes that I’m featuring today.  I’m mostly on my own for lunch so these dishes work out perfectly, and I feel like I’m saving calories by stretching the meal into two.  These two dishes are great for those times when you just can’t stand another tagine or bowl of harira and just want something new yet familiar.  The dishes can be made with simple ingredients from the souk and while one dish does need soy sauce (8 DH for a bottle), just pick some up during your next Marjane run to have on hand.  They are mostly for single servings, but if you bought at whole rotisserie chicken and had a lot of rice, you could double the recipes.  When you order the chicken, ask for the white meat breast quarter which will give you much more chicken to work with when eating some of it and saving some of it.

Chicken Fried Rice
Serves 1
Cooking Time: 5  minutes preparation, 10 minutes cooking time

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup left over chicken
• 1 cup left over rice
• 1/2 red onion
• 1/2 cup cabbage
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger (you can use fresh if you want)
• Soy sauce to taste
• 1 teaspoon oil

Slice onion and cabbage into thin strips and saute in oil in a shallow frying pan for about 5 minutes.  Add ginger, rice and chicken and stir in pan allowing ingredients to heat through.  Once thoroughly heated, shake soy sauce over mixture until you reach desired flavor and allow to pan fry for a few more minutes before serving. 

This dish is so simple and quick.  I suggest adding less soy sauce, tasting and adding more since it can get salty.  Plus, you can add any other vegetables you like either from whatever you have on hand or find in the souk.  Cabbage is nice and crunchy, but carrots and green peppers would work well too.  If you like it spicy, add a little green chili pepper too.

Chicken and Rice Soup
Serves 2
Cooking Time: 10 minutes preparation, 20 minutes cooking time

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup leftover chicken
• 1 cup leftover rice
• 2 medium sized carrots
• 1/4 large red onion or 1/2 of a small one
• 2 tablespoons fresh parsley and cilantro, mixed
• 1/4 teaspoon celery salt, optional
• 2 chicken stock cubes
• 2 cups of water
• Pepper to taste
• 1 teaspoon of oil or butter

Dice onion and saute in oil or butter, pepper and celery salt*  in a small sauce pan until translucent.  Add chicken stock cubes and water to onion and bring to a boil.  Once boiling, skim off any foam if it appears then add carrots and herbs.  Cook for about 10 minutes until carrots are tender, not mushy.  Shred or cut up chicken while waiting for carrots to cook.  Shut off heat and add chicken and rice to the broth and stir to combine everything.  Let sit for a few minutes so chicken and rice can warm through.  Serve hot with a peice of Moroccan bread spread with la vache qui rit!

Leftovers at the ready!

And, at the ready to eat!

If not using celery salt, you can use regular salt but the stock cubes already have a lot of sodium, so go easy.

I love this soup!  There is a chill in the air today so it was a perfect lunch, plus I have enough left for lunch tomorrow too.  It tasted even better than canned soup and was a great American style dish, but the fresh herbs gave it a clean flavor.  Of course, you can come up with many variations to it using different vegetables or by using vermicelli or pasta instead of rice.  You could make your own stock if you don’t like cubes, or if you find already prepared stock in the store, that would work too.  Change the herbs if you want- it’s all very flexible. If you don’t have leftover rice, you could use dry and increase the liquid and cooking time, but the idea is that it’s quick and easy and doesn’t take a lot of time to prepare.

While I’m at it, I might as well through in one more idea for leftover chicken: chicken salad!  Chop the left over chicken, add a little diced onion, some fresh parsley, mayonaisse, a little dijon mustard and some celery salt (or regular salt) and pepper.  Mix to comine and spread on bread.