tandoori chicken and couscous

The weather has been getting cooler. Some days are beautiful and sunny while others are kind of gloomy and rainy.

I think Autumn is almost here. At the market, they have started bringing in the chestnuts and pears.

Not sure why I was craving tandoori chicken, but I was.

The last time I made this, there was a slight "problem" in the kitchen.

This time around everything went okay, except that my lack of counter space made for balancing things here and there.

I bought chicken breasts with the skins on this time and marinated them lunch. (since they should marinate for about 4 hours)

The market had an awesome sale on chicken, 48 yen for 100 grams, so I only paid 172 yen (about US$1.72) for 358 grams.

Then at about 15:00 (snack time), I flipped them over in the marinade.

Previously, the pieces I had were smaller with no skin, so I cooked them for only 10 minutes then under the broiler for 17.

Since the pieces I had this time had the skin on them and were thicker, I put them into a 350F (180C) oven (skin side up) for 30 minutes then under the broiler for about 5 minutes.

The skin came out so crisp (of course I had to eat the one I had for dinner!), the meat was very moist.

I also made some carrot salad and couscous with dried fig, cranberries, apricots and nuts (pine nuts, pecan & cashew). I also roasted some red bell pepper and onion. Since I had some cucumber to use up, I cut it up and added it to the plate.

Not the most aesthetic plate, overall it was kind of labor intensive, it was a tasty dinner, which made it all worth it, plus we have leftovers so I don't have to cook tomorrow.