Chicken and Apricots with Freekeh

 I'll tell this story quickly.  I'd been watching a TV cook make a salad he swore would be high fibre, and to guarantee that, he added couscous.  What?  Couscous is a pasta made from white flour.  He should'a added cooked cracked wheat, or bulgur.

So with great indignance I went to the grocery store to buy bulgur, to show him a thing or two.  But no bulgur.  Instead I found freekeh.  Huh?  I googled it and thought, okay. 

Freekeh is a green durum wheat that has been roasted and smoked, and it's better than bulgur!  In fact, delicious!

So that launched me onto this! 

Ingredients

The marinade:

4 cloves fresh garlic, chopped 

one inch fresh ginger, chopped

3 whole cloves

3 whole allspice

1 two inch red chili

1 teaspoon whole cumin

1 teaspoon whole coriander

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/8 whole nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon salt    

Grind the spices to a powder.

The main ingredients

6 to 8 thicken thighs, with skin and bone

1 cup freekeh

1 cup cold water plus 1 1/2 cup water or chicken or vegetable stock

1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil

1/2 red onion, diced

1/4 large red cabbage, diced

12 dried apricots, sliced into 1/4 inch strips

1 sweet red pepper, diced

1/2 cup walnuts, chopped 

Freekeh, look for it in the International Aisle

Method

Grind the spices to a powder.

Add chopped garlic and ginger to a lidded container that you use to marinate the chicken.

Take half your spice and salt mixture and stir into the garlic and ginger in the lidded container.  Add chicken and rub the spice mix into each piece, then put the lid on and refrigerate for between three and 24 hours. 

Before you're ready to cook, add freekeh and cup of water to a small bowl, so it has 15 minutes to soak. Load the chicken into your air-fryer.  Why? The high heat of the air-fryer will drain much of the chicken fat away.  Set the device at 400 F and 25 minutes.  You will probably need to use a rack, depending how big it is.  Keep that marinating container with bits of garlic, ginger and spices handy. 

While the chicken is cooking, pour the olive oil into a large, deep pan that had a lid.  With heat on at medium high, add onions. Cook, stirring frequently till caramelization starts.  Then add cabbage.  Let caramelize a little, then add remainder of the ground spices.  Drain and rinse the freekeh and add to onion and cabbage.  Add your 1 1/2 cups of water or stock to that container you used to marinate the chicken.  There will still be bits of garlic, ginger and spice, so mix well and then add to the large pan. 

When the air-fryer bings, add the chicken to the vegetables and freekeh.  Add the apricots, stir, put the lid on, bring to a boil then lower heat to medium low.  Stir occasionally

Cook for about 30 minutes.  In the last five or ten minutes, add the red pepper.  Once cooked, stir in the walnuts.

Normally I would plate this on a beautiful platter or large bowl, but we were off to a community potluck, and my container was a big plastic tub. (Not gorgeous)

As the cabbage cooks, it loses its beauty, which is why you need the red pepper and apricots!  I added all 6 pieces of chicken but clicked at this point,