Name: 20 minute Chicken and Ptitim(Pearl Couscous)
Prep time: 5 min
Cook time: 7 min
Ingredients: 1 250 gram bag of star shaped ptitim, or other shape; 4 chicken breasts or thighs, cubed; 2 Tablespoons olive oil; 4 cups boiling water; 1 Tablespoon paprika; 1 Tablespoon garlic granules; 2 Tablespoon tomato paste; 3 Tablespoon olive oil; 2 tsp salt; 2 Tablespoon silan (100 %date honey); 2 tsp mustard; 1/4 a lemon , juiced

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Its dinnertime in Israel and we’re making it quick and yummy tonight with my 20 minute Chicken and Ptitim(pearl couscous)….A dish so full of flavor you’ll hardly believe how easy it was to prepare!

I mean flavorful, tender bites of chicken and saucy, spiced ptitim are what kids dinner dreams are made of! And mine too when its all cooked in just ONE PAN(thank you, you’re welcome).

For similar flavor but if you have bone in chicken, make this one pan dish: Skillet Chicken Rice and Potatoes.

Ptitim are extremely popular here and come in all shapes and sizes. My three old lately has been loving the little star shaped ones, which have more of a pasta than a rice- feel. Try to use those if you can get them.

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

At the end of the day- as a mom of four kids, bli ayin hara- i NEED a good meal. I dont just want it, look forward to it, and literally wait for it from the morning time, but i need it. I need to be fed, well. And usually im the one doing the feeding. This recipe is so easy to prepare my kids usually do it themselves, and the pan that the food cooks in is the one it gets served it.

one pan dinner- minimal dishes
ready in 20 minutes- and i mean it, this whole thing needs only 10 minutes on the fire!
family friendly- the kids love the pasta, we love chicken(and pasta)
great for weeknights, when you want it quick but hearty and so delicious too

Ingredients for Chicken and Ptitim

I use chicken breast as the protein here and a few basic pantry staples that give serious life to this dish and bring the flavour all the way home. they are:

2-4 chicken breasts or boneless chicken thighs
one bag star shaped ptitim
sweet paprika
garlic powder
tomato paste
olive oil
date honey(silan)
mustard (use one leftover takeaway strip or 2 teaspoons from a jar)
fresh lemon juice

My 2 Top Tips

This recipe is pretty straight forward but for ultimate success do this:

Toast the ptitim. After searing the chicken in the beautiful spices, add the flavoured ptitim to the pan and stir constantly for 1-2 minutes to toast them. This brings out their flavor and really makes them taste better.
Use boiling water. Once the ptitim have toasted, add 4 cups of boiling hot water. The pan is already hot and so is the pasta and it will imediately start boiling. This saves you the time of having to bring the water to a boil in the pan and possibly over cooking the ptitim- remmeber we want them star shaped still and not mushy. Saucy yes, mushy, no.

Some variations if you need them

In case you dont have certain things for this recipe even though the ingredient list is pretty sparce lets see:

chicken– you could use pepper steak strips! you could mabye even use leftover chicken, and just add it in after toasting the ptitim and not have to cook it at all.

*you could also make this vegetarian and serve it as a side dish and just add all the spices to the ptitim and skip the chicken steps altogether. still so yum!

Tomato paste- use ketchup

star ptitim– use a different small shape of ptitim!

Looking for more dinner ideas? We love these ones:

Healthier Schnitzel Fingers

Oven Baked Chicken Shwarma Dinner

Slow Cooker Beef Bites & Potatoes