Add all the ingredients for the dersa to your food processor and blitz them until you have a smooth paste. That’s it, dersa done. If you prefer, you can grind the garlic and dry ingredients together in a pestle and mortar, and then add the water and olive oil. Even though it takes a bit longer, I like doing it that way because it’s a little kitchen task I enjoy.

Add the butter and olive oil to the pot and set it on a medium-high heat. As soon as the buttery oil starts to foam, add the chicken thighs, skin-side up. Drop the heat to low-medium and let the chicken fry for 5 minutes. Then turn the pieces over and let them fry for another 5 minutes. With that gentle frying, you’re looking to get a light golden color — and I mean light golden — on each side. Remove the thighs with a slotted spoon and set them aside on a plate — and try to leave as much buttery oil as you can in the pot.

Repeat the same frying process with the drumsticks. You’ll need to turn these a few times as they slowly fry in order to give them a fairly even, pale gold color all over. That’ll take about 10 minutes on that low-medium heat. Remove the drumsticks with a slotted spoon, and set them on the plate with the thighs.

Turn the heat to medium, and stir all the dersa into the buttery oil. Give it a few stirs, and as soon as it starts to bubble, pour in the water, and give the whole lot a good stir. Let the mix come up to a bare boil and drop the heat to low. Now lay all the chicken pieces into the pot in a single layer. You don’t need to stir the pieces onto the dersa sauce, just lay them down in it. Cover the top of the pot with silver foil and put the lid on. You’re aiming here to create a good seal with the foil and the lid. You now want to let the pot cook at a very slow simmer on that low heat for 40 minutes.

When that 40 minutes is up, uncover the pot and add the chickpeas. Use a wooden spoon to work the chickpeas gently between the chicken pieces and into the dersa sauce. Take some care here so as not to break up the chickpeas or to separate the skin from the chicken. You’ll probably find that not all the chickpeas will be immersed in the sauce — that’s fine. Also, the chicken won’t be covered by the sauce either — that’s also fine. Now cover the pot again with the foil and the lid, and let it simmer away on low for another 10 minutes. Done. Turn off the heat and let the pot sit while you sort out the zucchini, peppers, and the couscous.

For this, I used a big, 12-inch skillet to gently soften the slices of zucchini and peppers in butter. So, set your big skillet on a medium heat and add the butter. As soon as it begins to foam, add the zucchini and the peppers. Now you’re looking to give them a slow and gentle stir-fry until they all soften to an al dente texture. That’ll take about 7 minutes on that medium heat — with some attentive turning so the whole lot gets evenly softened. Once you’re happy with that al dente texture, turn off the heat and leave the peppers and zucchini to sit while you cook the couscous.

This is so easy. Tip the couscous into a good size mixing bowl, and pour in the boiling water. Give the bowl a thorough stir so that the water and couscous are fully combined. Let it stand for 5 minutes.

So, remove the lid and the foil from the big pot, and set it back on a medium-high heat. Give the pot a few gentle stirs as the sauce heats towards bubbling. Once that happens, put the lid back on and drop the heat as low as it will go.

Use a fork to stir through the couscous so that it loosens into a bowlful of single, tiny beads. This will take a few minutes of thorough — and I mean thorough — stirring with the fork. Done. You’re ready to serve.

You want to do this fairly quickly so that everything stays nice and hot. So, turn the couscous onto a big warmed serving plate so that it forms a conical pile in the plate’s centre. Then use a slotted spoon to lift the chicken pieces and the chickpeas from your big pot, and set them carefully atop the couscous. Some of the chickpeas will tumble down the sides of the couscous and into the bottom of the serving plate — that’s fine.

Now arrange the slices of zucchini and peppers in an alternating, traditional pattern of red and green around the sides of the couscous. Grand, nearly done.

Pour all the dersa sauce into a suitably sized, warmed serving bowl, and set this on your dining table alongside your colorfully presented plate of couscous, chicken, chickpeas, peppers, and zucchini.

Encourage your fellow diners to help themselves from the big plate, and to then spoon over an equable share of the dersa sauce.