Moraccan Chicken and bell pepper stew

It's AUTUMN! that means it's STEW SEASON! WOOO! I made my first beef stew on Wednesday night and we ate it on Thursday, it was delicious.  I didn't have any broth in the house, but rather than wait another day or run out to the store I opted to use the juice from a can of whole marzano tomatos, diluted with water to make up 2 cups. I ended up crushing the tomatos and adding them to the stew.  The outcome was quite tasty, if maybe a little tangy. 

We had dinner last night at the Bristol, and one of the hands down favorite dishes of the night was the Papperdelle with stewed chicken and bell peppers, and I'd like to experiment with recreating those flavors. 

In my searching this morning,I found this recipe on the Pacific Foods Kitchen talk recipes site.This looked too good not to post. Of course they'd like you to use their products, and I'd recommend their delicious free range chicken broth anyway, but I'm not going to type out the long titles of either of those products. They're the special boxed organic soups you find in the organic aisle at your supermarket chain.


Ingredients

1       tablespoon olive oil
6       chicken thighs, skin removed
1       medium onion, diced
1       clove garlic, minced
1 1/2 lbs butternut squash, peeled and cuti nto 1 in cubes (about four
         cups if you don't have a scale)
1       15oz can garbonzo beans, drained and rinsed well
1/2    cup raisins (I feel like you could probably swap in dried
         cranberries, cherries or plums)
1       teaspoon ground cumin
1/2    teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2    teaspoon sea salt
1       32 oz container pacific natural red pepper and tomato soup
1       cup chicken broth
1       cup frozen peas
5       cups cooked couscous prepared according to package directions

Directions

Heat oil in Dutch Oven over medium-high heat. Add Chicken and saute until browned, about 10 minutes.  Transfer Chicken to a plate until needed.

Lower heat to medium, saute onion and garlic for about 5 minutes or until onion has softened. Stir in chicken, squash, garbanzo beans, raisins, cumin, cinnamon, salt, red pepper and tomato soup, and chicken broth. cover and simmer for about 20 minutes.

Add peas and continue to simmer uncovered for about 10 minutes, or until squash is tender and chicken is cooked through.

Divide couscous among six bowls and spoon stew over the top, making sure each bowl gets on chicken thigh. serves 6 generously.