Chicken & Couscous Haleem

..PHEEEEEEEWWWWW!

That is exactly how I felt Sunday night after a whole weekend of non-stop moving boxes, unpacking, organizing, & eating too many take-outs! 

 

And learned -  never to move to a third floor. My legs are not happy at all. But I think the view and nearby park somewhat compensates for that.

I was very exhausted both mentally & physically & all I wanted was to dive into home-cooked, hearty soup. One of my friend suggested Haleem, a thick beef stew popular among Pakistani, Bengali, Indian, Arabic and Persian cuisine. 

Traditionally, the stew is slow cooked with meat, lentils, and broken wheat but it may vary from one region to another.

For a Haleem newbie, it was just everything a sick-of-take-out soul needed - one pot dish, slow cooked, full of both carbohydrate & protein and big on flavor. 

I referred few online recipes and used ingredients that I had available at home.  

Chicken & Couscous Haleem

Makes about 4 servings

Ingredients

1/4 cup yellow split peas, dry

1/4 cup orange split peas, dry

1/2 cup couscous, uncooked ( I used this)

1 chicken breast, cubed

1 medium onion, sliced

1 tablespoon ginger, minced

3-4 garlic cloves, minced

3-4 tablespoon Haleem masala ( I used this)

2-3 teaspoon red chili powder

2-3 tablespoon cooking oil 

salt, as desired

water

 For garnish

 sliced ginger, fried onions, chopped cilantro, chopped green chili, chaat masala

Directions

-In a pressure cooker, boil both yellow and orange split peas for 20 minutes until they are very soft.

-Cook couscous based on instructions from the box.

-Mix split peas and couscous and puree them together.

-Heat a medium pan, add 1 tablespoon oil and fry onions until they are slightly brown. Remove from heat and keep aside.

-In the same pan, add 1-2 tablespoon oil and add garlic, ginger and chicken. Add 2 tablespoon Haleem masala and 2 teaspoon chili powder and fry them together for 8-10 minutes. Add 3/4 of fried onions to the mix and stir everything. 

-Transfer the chicken mixture to the pressure cooker along with split peas & couscous. Add water, remaining Haleem masala & red chili powder. (I eyeballed the amount of water that I added to the pressure cooker and continued adding more until the chicken & split peas were very soft and mushy) 

-Reduce the heat and allow it to simmer for about 35-40 minutes or until it reaches a thick consistency and chicken,split peas & couscous are pureed well together.

-Garnish it and serve hot. 

I ate the stew by itself but I think it goes well with plain white rice or naan bread too.