Harvesttime Chicken with Couscous

The Capitol was stormed on January 6th. I watched it on the television in the kitchen, standing at the counter, hands on the granite, unable to sit, unable to look away, unable to reconcile what I was seeing with what I know about the country I love. I thought about Irving. I thought about what Irving would say, this man who came to America because America was the promise, because America was the place where a Jewish boy from Poland could press coats on Seventh Avenue and send his daughters to college and eat dinner every night with a woman he loved. Irving would be heartbroken. Irving would be furious. Irving would say nothing and mean everything, because that was Irving's way — he held his strongest feelings in his silence, and the silence was louder than any speech.

I told my students, on Zoom, that we would talk about it. Not about politics. About language. About what happens when words are used as weapons, about the difference between speech and incitement, about why Orwell wrote "1984" and why Arthur Miller wrote "The Crucible" and why the books we read in English class are not historical artifacts but operating manuals for understanding the present. A student named Aisha said, "Mrs. Feldman, are we going to be okay?" I said, "I don't know. But I know that reading and thinking and talking about hard things is how we figure out the answer." It was an honest answer. It was not a comforting answer. But I am a teacher, not a comforter, and the difference matters, especially now.

I made Sylvia's chicken soup — the real one, the three-hour version, the one with dill and parsnip and the marrow bones that Sylvia insisted upon because the marrow gives the broth its depth, its soul, its reason for existing. I made it because the country was broken and the soup was not, and because Sylvia would have made soup, because Sylvia's response to every catastrophe — personal, political, existential — was to fill the pot and light the stove and feed whoever was hungry, and I am Sylvia's daughter, and the pot is full, and the stove is on, and I am feeding whoever is hungry, which right now is everyone.

I couldn’t make Sylvia’s three-hour marrow-bone soup that night — I didn’t have the bones, and honestly I didn’t have three hours before the shaking in my hands would have made the whole thing impossible. What I had was chicken, and what I had was a pot, and what I had was the absolute certainty that Sylvia would have approved of improvisation in the name of feeding people. This harvesttime chicken with couscous became my version of that same instinct: warm, substantial, made with the kind of attention that a crisis demands and a kitchen can provide.

Prep Time: 15 minutes | Cook Time: 40 minutes | Total Time: 55 minutes | Servings: 4

Ingredients

4 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs (about 2 lb total)
1 1/2 tsp kosher salt, divided
3/4 tsp black pepper, divided
2 tbsp olive oil
1 medium yellow onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 medium carrots, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch rounds
1 medium zucchini, cut into 1/2-inch chunks
1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
1 can (15 oz) chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp smoked paprika
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
2 cups low-sodium chicken broth, divided
1 1/2 cups whole wheat couscous
2 tbsp fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped, for serving
Lemon wedges, for serving

Instructions

Season the chicken. Pat chicken thighs dry with paper towels. Season all over with 1 tsp of the salt and 1/2 tsp of the pepper.
Brown the chicken. Heat olive oil in a large, deep skillet or Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add chicken thighs skin-side down and cook, undisturbed, until skin is deep golden brown, about 7–8 minutes. Flip and cook 3 minutes more. Transfer to a plate; do not discard the drippings.
Sauté the vegetables. Reduce heat to medium. Add onion and carrots to the same pot and cook, stirring occasionally, until onion is softened, about 4 minutes. Add garlic, cumin, smoked paprika, and cinnamon; stir and cook 1 minute until fragrant.
Build the braise. Add zucchini, cherry tomatoes, and chickpeas. Stir to combine. Pour in 1 1/2 cups of the chicken broth and scrape up any browned bits from the bottom of the pot. Season with remaining 1/2 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp pepper.
Return chicken and simmer. Nestle the browned chicken thighs skin-side up into the vegetables. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer until chicken is cooked through and registers 165°F at the thickest part, about 22–25 minutes.
Cook the couscous. About 10 minutes before chicken is done, bring remaining 1/2 cup broth plus enough water to equal 1 1/2 cups total liquid to a boil in a small saucepan. Remove from heat, stir in couscous, cover, and let stand 5 minutes. Fluff with a fork.
Serve. Spoon couscous into shallow bowls. Ladle chicken and vegetables over the top with plenty of broth. Scatter with fresh parsley and serve with lemon wedges on the side.

Nutrition (per serving)

Harvesttime Chicken with Couscous — The Pot Stays Full