Chicken with apricots and almonds

Ingredients

• 2 large yellow onions, chopped
• 4 tablespoons sunflower oil
• 2 teaspoons ground ginger
• 3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• Salt and pepper
• 2 free-range chickens, each cut into 8 pieces
• Salt and pepper
• Juice of a large lemon
• 1 litre good chicken stock
• 250g blanched almonds
• 2 tablespoons orange blossom water
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 3 tablespoons halved dried apricots, unsweetened

Method

In a large saucepan, cook the onions in the oil until they are translucent. 

Stir in the ginger and cinnamon, salt and pepper, then add the chicken pieces, stirring to coat them with the spice mixture and letting them brown. Pour over the lemon juice and chicken stock and simmer, covered, over a low heat for about 30 minutes.

Stir from time to time so that the pieces at the top are moved to the bottom.

Grind the almonds in a food processor, leaving them still fairly coarse, and mix to a rough paste with the orange blossom water and honey.

After the chicken pieces have been cooking for 30 minutes, take them out of the saucepan and arrange side by side on a baking dish. 

Mix the dried apricots into the liquid in the saucepan and pour it into the baking dish. Coat the top surface of the chicken pieces in the almond paste then bake in the oven at 180°C (350°F, gas 4) for about 45 minutes until the chicken is falling off the bone. 

Serve with rice.

No Place For A Lady (Avon) by Gill Paul is available to buy now.