Morocco · Main · Easy
Chicken Tagine
Rome's most famous pasta. Silky egg and Pecorino sauce clinging to every strand, studded with crisp guanciale. No cream, ever.
The whole recipe in 60 seconds
Chicken Tagine, in 5 ideas
- Preserved lemon rind only. The pulp is intensely salty. Rinse the lemon, scrape out the pulp, and slice just the rind.
- Brown in batches. Crowded chicken steams gray. Two batches gives you the golden fond that flavors the whole stew.
- Olives go in late. Forty-five minutes of simmering turns them mushy and too salty. Twenty minutes is enough to warm them through.
- Couscous soaks it up. The sauce is the point. Serve over fluffy couscous, not rice, and spoon generously.
- Better the next day. Like all braises, the flavors deepen overnight. It reheats beautifully.
What you need
Ingredients
- 3 lbs bone-in chicken thighs and drumsticks
- 2 onions, thinly sliced
- 4 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 tbsp grated fresh ginger
- 2 tsp turmeric
- 2 tsp cumin
- 1 tsp black pepper
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 2 cups chicken stock
- 1 preserved lemon, rind only, thinly sliced
- 1 cup green olives
- 1/2 cup cilantro leaves
- Couscous, to serve
How to make it
Directions
- Toss the chicken with the turmeric, cumin, pepper, and salt. Rest 15 minutes while you prep.
- Heat the olive oil in a tagine base or heavy Dutch oven. Brown the chicken in batches until golden, about 6 minutes per batch. Remove to a plate.
- Soften the onions in the same pot until golden, about 8 minutes. Stir in the garlic and ginger for 1 minute.
- Return the chicken, add the stock, and bring to a simmer. Cover and cook on low 45 minutes.
- Stir in the preserved lemon rind and olives. Cover and cook 20 minutes more, until the chicken is falling off the bone.
- Shower with cilantro and serve over couscous, spooning the sauce over everything.
Low and slow under the lid. The conical tagine lid traps steam and bastes the chicken continuously. A Dutch oven with a tight lid does the same job.