Recipe: Chicken Tagine

Recipe

Chicken Tagine
with Green Olives & Preserved Lemon

ghicken tagine

If you can, make this dish as Moroccan women have for centuries, in the cone-topped clay cooker that gives it its name—otherwise a Dutch oven works well. Traditionally, preserved lemons require curing in salt for at least two weeks. But this method, discovered by Paula Wolfert, takes only five days. And, you can preserve just one or two lemons instead of making a large batch. Try them chopped and mixed with green olives for an hors d'oeuvre, or place one inside a chicken before roasting, or chopped, in the cavity of a fish.

Ingredients

8 large chicken thighs, skinned
3/4 cup finely chopped onion
1/2 cup finely chopped fresh cilantro
1/2 cup finely chopped flat-leaf parsley
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon sweet paprika
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon saffron, crushed
2 cups Greek green olives, such as lonian or Nafplion
1/2 Moroccan preserved lemon, chopped (see Note), or lemon juice to taste
Juice of 1 lemon
Salt & black pepper

Arrange the chicken thighs in one layer in a medium-size tagine or Dutch oven. Sprinkle the onion, cilantro, parsley, garlic, cumin, ginger, paprika, 1/2 teaspoon of the pepper, and saffron over the chicken.

Add 2 cups of water and cover the pot.

If using a tagine, set it on a flame-tamer over medium heat. If using a Dutch oven, set over medium-high heat; the flame-tamer is not necessary. Bring to a boil. Immediately reduce the heat and simmer gently for 30 minutes.

Recipe from:
The Best of Clay Pot Cooking
by Dana Jacobi
Photographs by Elizabeth Watt
HarperCollinsPublishers
September 28, 1995
$14.95/Hardcover
ISBN: 0-00-225051-9
Reprinted by permission of the publisher.