Greek Couscous with Chicken Two Ways

Ok so I think I should change the name of my blog to "The Lazy Housewife" because I have all of these recipes I want to try to make but some of them have a lot of steps/ingredients and just don't have the patience for that type of cooking.  With that said my friend Emily posted this recipe on her blog and I wanted to try it.  I bought the ingredients (I had to chase down some artichokes here in OK) and began cooking when I realized I DON'T HAVE TO DO ALL OF THE STEPS!!!! So here it is...Greek Couscous with Chicken...the long way and the lazy way.

The lazy way:
Cooked chicken breasts
1 packages of Near East Whole Wheat Couscous with Garlic and Olive Oil
6 oz green beans, trimmed and halved
3 plum tomatoes, seeded and chopped
1/2 can artichoke hearts, drained and roughly chopped
1/2 cup crumbled reduced-fat feta
1/3 up kalamata olives, halved
2 tbsp lemon juice


Prepare Near East couscous as directed on the package.  Right as your stir in the couscous to the boiling water, add the green beans to the water along with the couscous.  Let that sit for a few minutes. Chop up artichokes and tomato and add to couscous.  Add other ingredients as desired ( I left out olives).  Cut up your piece of chicken and serve it on top of or next to couscous mixture. Top couscous with feta.



The long way:

Greek Couscous with Chicken

courtesy of Family Circle Magazine

1 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, chopped
3/4 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups Israeli couscous
1 1/4 cups low-sodium chicken broth
6 oz green beans, trimmed and halved
2 cups cooked, shredded chicken breast
3 plum tomatoes, seeded and chopped
1 can artichoke hearts, drained and roughly chopped
1/2 cup crumbled reduced-fat feta
1/3 up kalamata olives, halved
2 tbsp lemon juice
1. Heat oil in a medium nonstick saucepan over medium-high heat. Cook onion, oregano and 1/4 teaspoon salt; cook 4 minutes.
2. Stir in couscous and cook for 1 minute. Add chicken broth and 1 cup water to pot and bring to a boil; reduce heat to medium-low and cook, covered, for 12 minutes or until water is absorbed. Add green beans to pot for last 5 minutes of cooking.
3. Stir in remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt, chicken, tomatoes, artichoke hearts, feta, olives, and lemon juice and serve immediately.