The chicken turned out just fine.  I actually improved it a bit with the addition of a lot of salt after I’d flipped the chicken over, toward the end of the roast.

But the couscous.

I want to like couscous.  In fact, when I’ve had couscous elsewhere, I’ve liked it.  My personal success with the stuff seems to be pretty spotty, though.

I pulled a recipe out of the Dec 09 issue of Bon Appetit:  couscous with clementines, garbanzos, and olives, and dates. Sounds pretty good, eh?

Nope.  Bland and dry, bland and dry.

I think I’m going to have to treat couscous like risotto and add at least half again the liquid specified by the instructions. Maybe it’s the altitude.  Or maybe I just don’t like couscous as dry as most people do.  Bleah.  Eating this stuff was like eating sand.

I had couscous once at Blue Star that was HUGE, the size of large-pearl tapioca, and bathed in carrot puree.  I loved it, saucy and squishy, like savory tapioca pudding.

Does anybody know whether that’s just regular couscous, overcooked, or something different?