Moroccan-inspired Chicken Tagine
Best served with our vegetable couscous.
It was December 2019 and like everyone else we had no clue what was in store for the world in 2020. So we did what everyone did back then: we booked a nice trip, specifically to Marrakech.
We spent more hours that we’d like to admit watching videos and vlogs, asking friends, organising each and every single day of our Moroccan holiday, already thinking of what knick-knacks we were going to acquire. At the top of our list: we’d be coming back with an authentic Moroccan tagine and loads of saffron.
Then COVID hit and despite our best, most optimistic hopes, we were not allowed to leave our living room for the warm, colourful streets of Marrakech. It took us a few weeks (months) to mention Morocco again without feeling hurt. But now we’re feeling a bit better so we ventured to cook a Moroccan-inspired dish as evidence of our healing hearts. And so, we’re sharing it.
Moroccan-inspired Chicken Tagine
Equipment
- Dutch Oven
- Chef's Knife
- Small Pot
Ingredients
For the Chicken Pot
- 6-8 chicken thighs
- 1/3 tsp ground saffron
- 1/2 tsp ground ginger
- 1/2 tsp cumin
- 4 cloves garlic, chopped
- 1 tsp paprika
- 1/2 tsp turmeric
- 2 onions, thinly sliced around their orbit
- 20 green and black olives, halved (plus more for snacking while you cook)
- 2 preserved lemons, roughly chopped
- 250 ml chicken stock (1 cup)
- 1 lemon's juice
Instructions
- Start by salting the chicken thighs and cracking some black pepper on them while you heat up half of the vegetable oil. When hot, brown the chicken thighs skin-side down for 3-4 mins. Flip and cook for another 3-4 mins. It's important not to crowd the pan (you'll end up steaming more than pan-frying). A standard 5qt dutch oven can comfortably cook 4 chicken thighs at a time. Once all thighs are cooked, set them aside on a plate.
- Wipe the oven clean if desired and heat up the other half of vegetable oil in the dutch oven. Add the sliced onions and let them caramelise on a low heat for approximately 10 to 12 minutes until slightly caramelised. Caramelised onions will add a sweeter and apparently more authentic flavour to the dish, so if you'd prefer something more savoury, cook for 5 mins or so.
- Increase heat to medium-low. Add the chopped garlic and cook for 1 min. Add ground ginger, tumeric, cumin, and saffron and cook for 1 min. Add the chicken back to the dutch oven, and add the halved olives, the preserved lemons, chicken broth and lemon juice. Cover and let cook for 30 minutes. You can go ahead and chop the parsley now before moving to the couscous which you should totally have with this dish while the chicken is in the pot.
- Once ready, plate and serve with parsley and ideally couscous.
Post-dinner thoughts on Moroccan cuisine
As elsewhere, we make no claims to pure authenticity. We understand that Moroccan cuisine often comes across a bit sweeter than what this recipe might allow for. If you’re feeling adventurous, you can always add 2 tbsp of honey and a handful of dehydrated dates around the time you put the olives in.
There’s also the fact that we’re missing a tagine (or tajin) to cook this dish in. We never got to experience the intricacies of Moroccan cuisine, so we know this is lacking some of the key elements. We hope to come back in the near future with a more authentic recipe after we’ve had a chance to actually go visit Morocco.