This dish of chicken cooked with lots of onions, saffron, and other moroccan spices is easy to make and is the savory foundation to a number of delicious moroccan specialties such as chicken bastilla and chicken briouats. Saffron threads, a featured seasoning in moroccan cooking, are the stigmas from a small purple crocus. Saffron is the world's most expensive spice by weight since each flower has only three stigmas, which have to be carefully hand-picked and dried, resulting in the saffron threads we find in jars on store shelves. Since this is a laborious process, and it takes over 14, 000 of tiny stigmas to create an ounce of saffron, the spice comes with a hefty price tag. Fortunately, a little goes a long way. You'll be tempted to eat this tender, flavorful chicken right from the pot, but it is best served on a bed of moroccan rice pilaf or in seffa medfouna.
