Goat Cheese and Chicken Couscous

Sounds fancy, right?  It's easier than making ramen noodles.  Trust me.

Couscous is the tiniest member of the pasta family.  It's primarily found in Middle Eastern cuisine, and it's wonderful because it picks up the flavor of whatever you cook it in or with.  I think it makes the perfect grad student food because it takes no time to make.  I've taught Drew how to make couscous, and he eats it pretty regularly using the custom spice mix I made for him.

Here's the couscous i used.  

The way we're gonna do it today is to add chicken to it, then throw in a little goat cheese for extra flavor.  Goat cheese reminds me of my friend Donovan :)  He loves goat cheese and would buy it every single time we went grocery shopping together.  The kind i used is not the high-end stuff, but it is easy to find and pre-crumbled.  And uh, budget-friendly.

The other special ingredient is the fajita seasoning that i used.  Looks like this.

It's already mixed with all kinds of yummy, smokey spices, so even if your spice rack is impoverished, your couscous will have plenty of flavor.

Okay, let's do this.

Ingredients (1 serving):
-2 oz chicken, cubed
-1 tsp olive oil
-1/2 cup chicken broth
-1/3 cup couscous
-1 tsp pepper
-2 tbsp goat cheese, crumbled
-1/4 cup peas, frozen
-2-3 tbsp parsley, chopped

1.  In a small pot, add olive oil.  Chop your chicken while the oil gets hot. 

Once it does, add the chicken to the pot and saute until cooked.

2.  Add chicken broth.  Try to find the low sodium kind if you can.

Watch out for the steam!

Now, while it's coming to a boil, add half a tablespoon of fajita seasoning.  It's a strange color...but that's normal.

3.  When broth has come to a boil, remove from heat.  Get your measured out couscous.

Add couscous to the pot.

Then cover and let sit for 5 minutes.  Matching lids are for losers.

4.  While you wait, chop parsley and get peas and goat cheese ready.

5.  Open the pot...it'll look something like this.

Fluff couscous with fork.  Add peas and stir. 

Cover and let sit until peas defrost and warm up.  The reason you always put in peas last is that you don't want them to turn to mush by heating them up too early. 

6.  Plate couscous in a dish.

Mmm.  Technically, you could just stop here...

But what's the fun in that?

Sprinkle top with goat cheese!

7.  Add the parsley, and you're done!

Beautiful!  The flavor is just amazing...you have the deep, Tex-Mex flavor mixed with chicken pieces and broth to give it that wonderful homestyle taste.  Then you make it a little more exotic with goat cheese added to the top, contrasted with refreshing parsley. 

And it takes no time, very little money, and relatively no skills or patience.  Perfect.

Enjoy, and have a wonderful weekend!

For a printable version of this recipe, please click here.