Sautéed Chicken with Moroccan Hot-and-Sweet Tomato Sauce

Jeff the Chef
"Sautéed Chicken with Moroccan Hot-and-Sweet Tomato Sauce," from Make It Like a Man!

Sautéed Chicken with Moroccan Hot-and-Sweet Tomato Sauce is uncomplicated, yet spectacularly restaurant-worthy. The flavors and aroma are alluring and out of the ordinary. The gorgeous sauce is impressively rich and substantial – indeed, it’s downright luscious.

What you need to serve 4:

1 large (28-oz.) can plum tomatoes
1 tsp coarse salt, plus more to taste
Freshly-cracked pepper
1/2 cup chopped white onion
2 medium cloves of garlic, peeled
2 Tbs cold butter, cut into pea-sized pieces
2 Tbs melted butter
1 Tbs sesame seeds
2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breast
3/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ginger
Pinch cayenne
1 Tbs honey
1 tsp maple syrup
2 Tbs chopped cilantro

How to do it:

  1. Pour tomatoes into a medium-sized saucepot. Use your hand to squeeze the tomatoes, in order to crush them in your fist and break them down. Add salt and loads of pepper, bring it all to a simmer over medium heat, and cook until the tomatoes have broken down substantially, about 10 minutes. Check seasoning periodically, as the tomatoes cook. Off heat, dot with cold butter, stir, and check seasoning. Set aside. Meanwhile, purée the onion, garlic, and melted butter in a food processor until it forms a paste.
  2. Toast the sesame seeds over medium-high heat in a dry casserole pot, stirring constantly, until lightly golden brown and fragrant, about 7 minutes. Immediately remove them from the pan so that they don’t continue to toast.
  3. Pat the chicken dry with paper towels. Add oil to the casserole (still over medium-high heat), wait a few seconds until it starts to shimmer, and lay the chicken into the pan. Brown the chicken, about 3 minutes on each side. Remove the chicken to a plate.
  4. Adjust the heat to its lowest setting. Scrape the onion purée into the pot. Cook, stirring frequently, until it becomes dark brown and smells sweet, about 7 minutes. Add the cinnamon, ginger, and cayenne. Raise the heat to medium and cook for a few minutes, stirring constantly.
  5. Pour the tomato sauce into the pot. Add honey and syrup. Simmer, stirring frequently, until thick, 5 minutes.
  6. Add the chicken and any accumulated juice to the sauce, spoon sauce over the chicken, cover, adjust heat to lowest setting, and cook until chicken is done, no more than 20 minutes.
  7. Remove chicken from pot. Raise heat to medium-high and cook sauce until it’s once again thick, 3 minutes. Let the sauce rest about 5 minutes before serving. Serve chicken, garnished with cilantro and sesame seeds, over a bed of sauce.
"Sautéed Chicken with Moroccan Hot-and-Sweet Tomato Sauce," from Make It Like a Man!

Notes:

Splurge on expensive, imported tomatoes. It’s worth it.

It’s too bad that two pounds of chicken breasts involves three breast pieces. Makes it tricky to serve four. The answer is to slice the finished breasts and divide them into four portions.

Don’t fear the black pepper. At the end of Step 5, it should seem quite spicy, but once the chicken is finished cooking in the sauce, the sauce will have mellowed.

I can’t say enough good things about this sauce. It’s thick and rich and so full of flavor. This sauce could pair with many things other than chicken, easily: pork chops, lamb, even pot roast. Rice, couscous, quinoa, or the like make nice accompaniments – but keep those things simple so that they don’t compete with this dish’s exotic flavor.

This dish takes time, but it’s not difficult. The sauce reheats so perfectly that it’s indistinguishable from fresh. Chicken, however, is best fresh (unless you cook it sous vide – leftover sous vide chicken is delicious – and I think you could easily modify this recipe for sous vidification).

This recipe is a modification of one from The Culinary Institute of America Cookbook, pub. by Lebhar-Friedman Books, NY, 2008; pg. 144. The original recipe called for fresh tomatoes, which I nixed in favor of canned. It also had some problematic instructions that I straightened out.

"Sautéed Chicken with Moroccan Hot-and-Sweet Tomato Sauce," from Make It Like a Man!
Sautéed Chicken with Moroccan Hot-and-Sweet Tomato Sauce

Credit for images on this page: Make It Like a Man! Thank you, Kesor. This content was not solicited by anyone, nor was it written in exchange for anything.

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50 thoughts on “Sautéed Chicken with Moroccan Hot-and-Sweet Tomato Sauce”

  2. I am normally not a fan of chicken and anything tomato (except for chicken Parmesan), but you have totally sucked me in here with all of the wonderful spices. Naturally, I am out of fresh cilantro (and cannot grow my own to save my life), so I’ll add it to my next grocery order and give this a try.
    Pattie recently posted…Zucchini Spice Bread

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  6. You honestly gave life to that chicken breast, thats the chicken cut I least likely to buy but with that sauce, it makes sense, it will definitely give lots of flavour to it

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  7. Hmmm, I can’t say that I’m familiar with hot-and-sweet tomato sauce, but I’ve found that I do enjoy Moroccan cuisine. I totally want to try this one out! I find it interesting that it includes both honey and maple syrup. I’m game, though! Oh, and great photos, Jeff!
    David @ Spiced recently posted…Grilled French Toast

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  8. I love this combination, Jeff. It reminds me of some of the soups I had in Morocco made into a sauce and served with this chicken, which looks perfectly cooked. Definitely something to try this summer to add some “spice“ to the menu. (We are getting pretty monotonous here about now…)

    Reply

    • Thanks, David! I hope your summer gets spicier as it goes along!

      Reply

  10. Delicious! I absolutely love Moroccan spices and this recipe is a perfect healthy, flavorful dinner! Thanks, I will definitely be making this one!

    Reply

  11. Lovely dish — and interesting tomato sauce. Love cinnamon with savory food. In fact it was Moroccan food that turned me on to this. And we almost always slice meat before we serve it these days (steak in particular) — simply because we can’t eat the giant portions that store have on offer these days. Good recipe — thanks.
    John / Kitchen Riffs recently posted…The Leatherneck Cocktail

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  15. Jeff, this looks amazingly delicious. I could even just have the sauce with bread. (Not that I’d skip the chicken!) YUM! 🙂 ~Valentina

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  16. This hot and sweet tomato sauce is so intriguing, Jeff. I love it already, and will definitely be making it! I can see how it would be so versatile, yum!

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  17. I love the idea of sweetening up tomato sauce a little – what a fabulous balance of flavours there is in this sauce, Jeff. And the chicken looks perfectly cooked – I would love this for dinner tonight!

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  18. Claudia Roden’s books on Moroccan cooking offer lots of variety but I think this is different from her usual offerings. Sounds good!

    Morocco really sounds like a culinary heaven. I want to go there but it’s difficult (and at the moment probably impossible).

    be well… mae at maefood.blogspot.com

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  19. Thanks for taking the time to “straighten” this recipe out because it’s right down my alley. GREG

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  20. We have loved the flavours of Morocco since our trip there many years ago. I buy the San Marzano tomatoes from Costco, they are excellent. Have you tried adding a pinch of baking soda to tomato sauce? It totally changes the acidity level which makes the sauce taste sweet, it’s pretty incredible!
    Eva Taylor recently posted…Low Carb Banana Bread

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    • No, I’d never heard of that baking soda trick. I’m going to have to try that.

      Reply

  23. Fantastic ? The ginger helps with weight loss an more. The sauce looks great. Be back to read more.

    Reply

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