Chicken Tagine

In last week’s edition of Dish of the Week (#54 – read here), we showed you how easy it was to prepare Lamb Tagine on the fire. However, if you would prefer chicken, read on because Chicken Tagine is even easier to make – and you can use your oven for this one.

Preserved lemons:

However, making Chicken Tagine requires a bit of preparation (read: a few weeks or months in advance). An important ingredient in Chicken Tagine is preserved lemons. Of course, you can buy these in any great deli, but it’s so much better if you made it yourself.

Mason jar with our own preserved lemons

Berto made preserved lemons already in July. He stuffed a few lemons with lots of salt, put them in a Mason jar and then topped up with water. We wondered what the taste would be like and three months later, when we opened it for the first time, we were surprised that it almost had a balsamic vinegar/soy sauce taste – sweet and sour, actually quite a wonderful taste.

Glossy preserved lemon

Put it on the table:

To get the best flavour out of the chicken, we suggest marinating the chicken (called chermoula/charmoula in North Africa) and leaving it covered in the fridge overnight (or at least 1 hour if you’re pressed for time). Our chicken was in the fridge overnight and the next day it was just a matter of popping it in the oven – ideal if you have guests and don’t want to spend the whole time in the kitchen.

Ingredients for chermoula

8 chicken pieces (thighs and drumsticks)

saffron water: a large pinch of saffron + 1 cup of warm water

pulp of 1 large preserved lemon, finely chopped

handful of fresh coriander and parsley, finely chopped

2 garlic cloves, grated

1 teaspoon fresh ginger, grated

2 teaspoons ground paprika

½ teaspoon ground cumin

¼ teaspoon pepper

2 tablespoons olive oil

Start by soaking the saffron in warm water for about 10 minutes. By doing this, you enhance the flavour of the saffron.

Soak saffron in warm water

Slice the preserved lemon and remove the pulp from the skin. Finely chop the pulp (and keep the skin for later).

Finely chopped preserved lemon pulp

Now it’s time to make the chermoula. In a bowl, combine the chopped coriander and parsley, preserved lemon pulp, garlic, ginger, cumin, pepper, saffron water and olive oil. Mix well.

Chermoula

Place the chicken in a glass dish and rub the chermoula into the chicken pieces. Cover and refrigerate overnight (or at least 1 hour).

Chicken covered in chermoula

Let’s move on to the next day and make the actual Chicken Tagine. Remember that we mentioned in our previous post that we didn’t have a tagine and that our cast iron ‘potjie’ on the fire worked just as well. Today we use our Le Creuset pot (with a lid) for the oven.

Ingredients for Chicken Tagine

2 onions, sliced

2 tablespoons olive oil

pinch of salt

pinch of ground turmeric

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

handful of green pitted olives

skin of 1 preserved lemon, cut into strips

chicken covered in chermoula

Preheat the oven to 180°C/356°F. Drizzle olive oil in the bottom of the pot and cover with onion strips. Sprinkle a little bit of salt and turmeric over the onions.

Tip: Because of the preserved lemons in the chermoula, the dish is already salty. Add more salt towards the end after tasting the sauce.

Onion covered with a little salt and turmeric

Add the chicken and any leftover chermoula over the onion strips and cover with a lid.

Chicken and chermoula on onion strips

Cook for about 20 – 25 minutes until the onion and chicken released their juices. Stir gently, cover and cook for 1 hour.

Chicken Tagine after 25 minutes in the oven

After 1 hour, add the lemon juice and green olives. Top the chicken with the preserved lemon skins. Taste the sauce and add salt if necessary. Do not cover the pot and continue to cook for another 15 minutes until the sauce has thickened.

Add lemon juice, olives and preserved lemon skins

Chicken Tagine – ready to be served

Chicken Tagine works best over a bed of couscous. There’s no need for side dishes, though you can never go wrong with crusty bread or a big salad.

Moroccan-inspired Chicken Tagine over couscous