Life sucks us into routines, especially when you partner up with someone and your lives intertwine. You play to your strengths, or what you think your strengths are, and rely on that person for theirs to construct this unique and cohesive journey.

I’ve been cooking since I was young, so you could say it’s on my ‘strengths’ list.

My wife? Meredith would argue that cooking isn’t her strong suit, but she couldn’t be more wrong.

I do most of the cooking in our house by default. Maybe because of my student/dad lifestyle. Maybe it just happened that way because I enjoy it but I’m not the only one in the house with significant culinary abilities in the household.

I couldn’t get too many pictures of the process but what she made was a Moroccan Chicken dish with couscous a few nights ago and I keep feeling compelled to share it.

Sometimes the food adventure is letting someone else take the wheel and while you sit back and enjoy the ride. The food was very tasty, so much so that we want to make it again.

The only other time I’ve had Moroccan style food was when I made Chicken Tajine for a family event a couple years ago, but I’ve always wanted to dive into this food further.

The dish used chicken thighs and a sweet, savory sauce of tomato, garlic ginger, cumin, cinnamon and lime juice. She asked me what we could use in place of lemon juice (what the recipe called for) and we happened to have key lime juice in the fridge. It gave the dish a unique citrus undertone. The sweet flavor came through with the addition of raisins and dried apricots.

Unintentionally, it wasn’t going to be ready in time for the kids to eat so they got to embark on a new food adventure of their own: Fluffernutters.

We got to eat alone which is all too rare, so it was nice to share each other’s company without screaming kids and typically young-family chaos. We talked about the food and what we would do to change it, because that’s always my first thought when eating anything.

We felt the recipe she followed could have used fresh ginger and more of it. It also could have used more cinnamon. The original recipe called for a whole chicken, cut up and skin removed but we liked the boneless/skinless thighs. It made things easy and still kept the flavor deeper than chicken breast might have (though I wouldn’t rule it out).

We ate it with a savory roasted garlic and olive oil couscous to balance out what we anticipated to be a pretty sweet dish. It was definitely a good call.

If you’re like me, and a complete control freak in the kitchen, try to give someone else in your life the chance to make you a meal. No matter who makes it, there’s nothing better than sharing a meal with people you love.

The recipe below is based on the conversation we had about changing it next time.

Cheers!

Recipe:

• Approx. 3-4 lbs. boneless/skinless chicken thighs
• 4-5 carrots, peeled & sliced
• 2 large onions, halved and sliced
• Approx. 15 oz. chicken broth
• 1/2 c. dried apricots, chopped
• 1/2 c. raisins
• 1/4 c. tomato paste
• 2 Tbsp. lime juice
• 2 Tbsp. all-purpose flour
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 Tbsp. fresh ginger, grated
• 1 Tbsp. cinnamon
• 2 tsp. cumin
• 3/4 tsp. black pepper
• 1/2 tsp. salt

Directions:

Add carrots & onions to your slow cooker. Season chicken with salt & pepper, place on top of veggies. Add apricots and raisins on top of the chicken.

Whisk together flour and broth until smooth. Then, whisk in the tomato paste, lime juice and remaining spices. Pour over ingredients in the slow cooker.

Cover and cook on high for 4 hrs. or low 7-8 hrs.

Serve with couscous or rice. I would also consider a good flatbread like naan to go with it.