Step 1

Mix all of the spice rub spices together in a bowl. Rub the chicken with the spice rub and leave it to marinate in the refrigerator for at least one hour, or up to 24 hours

Step 2

Preheat the oven to 375 F

Step 3

Slice the potatoes into 1/4 inch thick slices and place in a bowl. Fill the bowl with water until the potatoes are covered. This will keep them from browning before they are ready to be cooked.

* Optional: Do not put the potatoes in water, instead fry them. Heat a large skillet over medium high heat with a 1/4 cup of oil. When the oil is hot, add the dry sliced potatoes and fry them in batches until they begin to brown.Remove them from the pan and set aside

Step 4

In a large pot (big enough to hold all of the potatoes), heat a 1/4 cup of olive oil over medium high heat. Add the onion and sauté until the onions are translucent (about 10 minutes)

Step 5

Add the crushed tomatoes and reduce the heat to medium. Cook for 10 minutes until most of the water has evaporated, stirring every once in a while and checking on the consistency. As the water evaporates, the sauce will thicken. As it starts to thicken, you will want to turn the heat down lower and stir it more frequently to keep it from burning

Step 6

Add the tomato paste. Turn the heat up to medium high again and sauté the tomato paste for 2 – 3 minutes to get rid of the metallic taste

Step 7

Add the broth, paprika, cumin, coriander, garlic powder, salt, pepper, and chopped cilantro to the mix. Let it come to a boil then turn the heat down to medium and let it simmer for 5 minutes

Step 8

Add the sliced potatoes to the sauce and cook them for 10 minutes until a fork can easily prick them but does not go all the way through

*If you fried the potatoes first, they only need to cook in the sauce for a few minutes

Step 9

Remove the chicken from the refrigerator. Heat a large skillet over medium high heat with 3-4 Tbsp of oil. Sear the chicken on both sides until lightly browned but not cooked

Step 10

Remove the potatoes from the pot of sauce and spread them evenly in a deep-sided 9×13 inch baking pan. Leave as much of the sauce as possible in the pot for coating the chicken

Step 11

Add the chicken to the sauce and mix well until it is all evenly coated in the sauce

Step 12

Place the saucy chicken on top of the potatoes, trying not to crowd the chicken pieces. Pour the remaining sauce over the chicken and potatoes. The chicken should not be submerged in the sauce. There may be some sauce left over that doesn’t fit in the pan, that’s okay

Step 13

Place the pan in the oven and bake for 30-40 minutes, or until the potatoes are tender and the chicken is cooked to a temperature of 65 F

Notes

*I recommend using bone-in chicken peices because they will take longer to cook than boneless chicken. This gives the potatoes enough time to cook through so that the potatoes and chicken finish cooking at the same time. An easy hack, if you wanted to use boneless chicken, would be to let the potatoes pre-cook in the sauce on the stove until they are closer to being fork tender, but not quite fully cooked (maybe 15 or so minutes)