Missing a piece of Morocco lately (more so the hamman you could say). So I thought I’d take out my tagine I bought whilst I was traveling there with my cousin in Jan 2014 (we toured Marrakech, Atlas Mountains, and the Erg Chebbi) and take it out to make a preserved lemon chicken tagine. I still remember how beautiful camping in the Sahara was (climbing on top of the dunes to watch sunrise and sunset) and the graze on my butt the long camel ride gave me! How time flies…
Anyways, since we all can’t travel now due to the covid-19 pandemic, I decided to make a Moroccan dish to “bring me back to Morocco” (if you get what I mean). The preserved lemons I used were home-made (from a friend), but you can easily procure them in a middle eastern store or supermarket (might be harder to find in Asia though).
So this rich and fragant chicken stew is loaded with complex flavours reminiscent of the sort I encountered in the mountainside cafes in Morocco (gosh I miss the Atlas mountains!). Shall you make this, you will have your kitchen smelling amazing afterwards!
The process is simple. First, you rub the chicken pieces with a redolent combination of garlic, saffron, ground ginger, paprika, cumin, turmeric and black pepper, then pop it into the refrigerator for 3 to 4 hours to marinate (or overnight if you prefer). Then you brown the chicken in a saute pan to get the Malliard reaction going. Next you gently sweat the onions in the tagine and one sweated, add the cinnamon stick, chicken pieces, chicken stock, saffron, preserved lemons and olive to the stew. Let it simmer on low heat for half an hour and you are done. Tagines are best – and traditionally served – served with couscous but feel free to mop up the juices with crusty bread.
Ingredients
- 4 chicken thighs (but feel free to use a whole chicken cut into pieces or chicken drumsticks)
- 8 olives
- 5 cloves of garlic, sliced
- 1/2 teaspoon of sweet paprika
- 1/2 teaspoon of cumin
- 1/2 teaspoon of ground ginger
- 1/4 teaspoon of saffron threads, pulverised
- 1 onion, diced
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 1 large preserved lemon, sliced or diced
- 1 cup of chicken stock
- 1/2 juice of lemon
- 2 tablespoons of olive oil
- salt and pepper, to taste
- finely chopped parsley and coriander to garnish
Instructions
- Marinade chicken with one tablespoon of olive oil, the garlic, cumin, ginger, paprika and some salt and pepper. Let it sit in the fridge for a few hours or overnight so that the flavours sink in.
- Heat a fry pan on medium-high heat and lightly grease. Once the oil gets hot, add the chicken pieces and fry until they brown on both sides. Remove and set aside in a bowl.
- Heat the tagine on low heat and add a tablespoon of olive oil. Throw in the diced onions and sweat for several minutes until the onions turn translucent. Add the cinnamon stick along with the chicken pieces on top of the onions. Next add the preserved lemons and olives.
- In a bowl, combine the saffron with a tablespoon of warm water to fully release the flavours.
- Pour the chicken stock and saffron into the tagine to cover the chicken pieces. Close the tagine lid and let it slowly simmer until the chicken cooks through (could take 15-30 minutes depending on how big your pieces are).Â
- Once the chicken is cooked through, you can remove the tagine lid and garnish the stew with the chopped parsley and/or coriander before serving.
Notes
Note that if you don't have a tagine you can simply use a large saute pan. Feel free to skip the paprika too.