Baked Moroccan Chicken with Pumpkin and Rice

This recipe is taken from the Aug-Sept edition of "Dish" magazine.
We used Rangitikei corn fed free range chickens thighs.
This is a fantastic one pot winter dish with delicious and exotic flavours.
I'll transcribe the recipe exactly as it appears in the magazine and note any changes we made.



Baked Moroccan Chicken with Pumpkin and Rice

6 chicken thighs, bone in, skin on (we used eight boneless, skinless chicken thighs)
2 tablespoons of olive oil
2 onions, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
3 cloves of garlic, crushed
1 teaspoon each of ground ginger, turmeric, paprika and cinnamon
Finely grated zest of one lemon
500 grams of crown pumpkin, peeled and diced into 2cm pieces (we used butternut pumpkin)
2 1/2 cups of chicken stock
1 cup of basmati rice, washed and drained
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Preheat the oven to 180C
Tie the chicken thighs with kitchen string to give an even shape (we omitted this step, it is unnecessary). Season.
Heat the olive oil in a 30cm ovenproof saute pan or cazuela (as you can see from the picture we used a le creuset casserole) and cook the chicken on both sides until a good golden colour. Remove to a plate.
Spoon off any excess fat, leaving 3 tablespooons in the pan. Add the onions, carrots and garlic, season and cook for 10 minutes. Add all the spices and lemon zest and cook for 2 minutes. Add a splash of water if the pan is too dry.
Stir in the pumpkin to coat in the spices. Pour in the stock, scraping the base of the pan to release all the sticky bits on the bottom.
Stir in the rice then place the chicken thighs on top along with any resting juices.
Cover tightly and bake for 45 minutes. Uncover and gently fluff up the rice with a fork. Serves 4-6.