Today I have another easy, quick, and healthy recipe for you that can all be cooked in one pan! A Couscous, Chicken, and Butternut Squash One-Pot!
This one-pot recipe makes for a nutritious and speedy weeknight dinner, that is also budget- and freezer-friendly. Perfect for students!
Recipe Alterations – Make it Vegetarian/Vegan
Of course, as with most cooking recipes, there is always room for recipe adaptation and experimentation. And this Couscous, Chicken and Butternut Squash One-Pot is no different!
You can change up the herbs and spices, as well as the protein and vegetable components. For example, you can tone down or up the spice by adding less or more of the harissa paste, or add a bit of garlic to the onions while sweating them.
If you don’t like chicken or want to make this dish vegetarian, why not replace it with a vegetarian alternative such as tofu or paneer? Or leave it out completely for a completely vegan version! You could also use more and/or different veggies to bulk up this one-pot. I’d probably recommend keeping them quite chunky to create a variety of texture in this one-pot meal. Courgette, aubergine, or peppers would probably lend themselves really well!
More One-Pot Dinners | Quick, Easy and Student-friendly
As a student, I am a big fan of healthy and quick dinners that require minimum washing up – so what could be better than a delicious one-pot meal? I have quite a few different recipes on my blog that you could try (disclaimer – okaaay… so for some you might need a second pot to cook some rice or pasta… sorry), so make sure to check out some of my favourites below!
- Curried Cauliflower and Chickpea Pilaf
- Red Lentil and Sweet Potato Dhal
- Vegan Mixed Bean Chilli
- Healthy and Colourful Student Stir-fry
- Chicken and Chorizo Jambalaya
- Red Lentil Soup
- Salmon in Vegetable Cream Sauce (and Mashed Potato)
- Butternut Squash Chilli with Brown Rice
- Smoky Tomato Sauce with Spaghetti
- Grandma’s Thick Vegetable Soup
- Chickpea and Spinach Curry (Vegan)
Couscous, Chicken and Butternut Squash One-Pot
Recipe
Ingredients:
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 2 tsp harissa paste
- ½ tbsp ground cumin
- ½ tbsp ground coriander
- 2 red onions, peeled and thinly sliced
- 2 large chicken breast fillets, cut into chunks
- 500g (1 medium) butternut squash, cubed
- 150g couscous
- 1 vegetable stock cube
- 400g (1 tin) chopped tomatoes
- Juice and zest of 2 lemons
- Small bunch of fresh coriander, roughly chopped
Method:
- Heat 1 tbsp of olive oil in a large frying pan and add the dried spices and harissa paste. Once the oil is hot, add in the sliced onions and stir to coat them in the spices.
- Fry the onion over a low heat for 10 minutes until softened.
- Increase the heat and add in the chicken. Coat in the onions and spices and fry for 5 minutes to seal. Then tip in the butternut squash and cook for a further 5 minutes.
- Add the chopped tomatoes to the frying pan, then fill the tin with water and add that too. Crumble in the vegetable stock cube and stir until everything is combined.
- Bring to a gentle simmer, cover the pan with a lid and gently cook for 20 minutes.
- Turn off the heat, add the couscous, lemon zest and half of the chopped coriander and stir until combined. Cover again with a lid and leave for 5-10 minutes until the couscous has absorbed the liquid.
- To finish, squeeze the lemon juice over the couscous and stir through the remaining coriander.
