Dukkah Chicken with Roast Pumpkin, Haloumi and Tahini Yogurt

I recently enjoyed the most wholesome and delicious lunch at a local cafe and decided to recreate the meal for my familyThere are a few individual elements to this, but the good news is, each one is dead easy and the end result is totally worth it. I suggest doubling the chicken component and pop leftovers into Mountain Bread wraps with lettuce and mayo for a delicious lunchbox addition the next day.

Wanna know the best bit? My kids HATE pumpkin, and I can only get it past them by making this soup or this dip, but up until now, they have refused it any other way. But they absolutely loved it roasted in this dish! I can only gather it was because the pumpkin was in total harmony with everything else on the plate. On a side note, never, ever stop offering your kids foods they hate because how will they ever get a chance to try it if they don’t see it and trust me, miracles do happen!

Many of the ingredients in this recipe can be sourced from my one-stop-favourite, organic wholefoods online store, The Wholefood Collective. They go to great lengths to ensure everything they source is amazing quality, they stock all my favorite products and I don’t even have to leave the house! Oh and the cherry on the cake is they donate profits to improve food security for vulnerable Aussies.

Here are some of the ingredients you’ll need:

Walnuts
Hazelnuts
Sesame seeds
Ground coriander
Ground cumin
Sea salt
Black pepper
Spelt flour
Tahini

Dukkah Chicken with Pumpkin, Haloumi and Tahini Yoghurt Sauce

Brenda Janschek

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Prep Time 30 mins

Cook Time 1 hr

Total Time 1 hr 30 mins

Servings 4

Ingredients

  

You can totally skip making your own dukkah and buy some good dukkah from the grocer instead. To make the dukkah I used the nuts below because that's what was in my cupboard, but you can use almonds, hazelnuts or brazil nuts if that's what you have

• 1/2 cup walnuts
• 1/3 cup hazelnuts
• 1/4 cup sesame seeds
• 1 teaspoon ground coriander
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• lots cracked black pepper
• Half a pumpkin
• 600 grams chicken tenderloins
• 1/2 cup spelt flour
• 1-2 eggs
• 1/2 cup yoghurt
• 1 tablespoon tahini
• 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
• Salt and pepper
• 1 cake of haloumi sliced
• 1 cup couscous cooked per packet instructions

Instructions

 

Dukkah

• Toast the walnuts and hazelnuts in a skillet for around 3 minutes or until they are fragrant.
• Add the sesame seeds, coriander, cumin, salt and pepper and toast make sure you stir often so they don't burn, a couple more minutes should be enough.
• Remove the mix from the heat and transfer them to a food processor.
• Process the mixture until the nuts are broken down to the point that they resemble coarse sand (but not a fine powder)

Roast Pumpkin

• Preheat oven to 180 C
• Cut into 3 cm wedges, leave skin on
• Pop wedges onto baking tray and brush olive oil over the pumpkin, including the skin. Place wedges skin side down on the tray, season and roast 45-60 until tender or when skin starts to slightly blacken

Dukkah Chicken

• Line 1-2 baking trays with parchment paper
• Place spelt flour on a dinner plate
• Whisk egg in a bowl (use one egg at a time)
• Place some dukkah on a dinner plate (top up as you go)
• Set up an assembly line of chicken, flour, egg, dukkah and proceed to dip the chicken into the flour (shake off excess), egg (allow excess to drip off) and finally the dukkah and place on baking tray
• Drizzle the chicken with olive oil and bake until the chicken is cooked through, approx. 15 – 20 minutes, flipping half way through the cooking time (I pop in the oven around half way through cooking the pumpkin)

Tahini Yogurt Sauce

• Whisk together yoghurt, tahini and lemon juice and season with salt and pepper in a small bowl

Haloumi

• While the pumpkin and chicken are in the oven, heat a large frying pan, drizzle in some extra virgin olive oil or ghee, once pan is hot, fry the haloumi slices until golden brown on both sides
• Once everything is cooked, serve all components onto plate with fresh, side salad and drizzle the sauce over the chicken and pumpkin

Notes

Store dukkah in airtight container

If you make this dish please do take photos and send them to me.

If you make this recipe and share on instagram, remember to tag me @brendajanschek.

Otherwise feel free to pm me your photos via Facebook. I get a total kick out of seeing you bring my recipes to life.

Some other of our fave family dinner recipes you might like are Oven-fried Chicken and Garlic Prawn and Pea Spaghetti