Chicken Tagine with Preserved Lemons & Olives
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Category
Main Dish
A light, bright tagine, this can be made in a traditional tagine or dutch oven. Because a tagine can only be used over medium low heat it is important to sear the chicken in a separate skillet to build flavor and give the chicken a beautiful golden color. We love this with saffron + almond couscous or rice. Preserved Lemons can be found at most high end and Middle Eastern grocery stores - sometimes they are also called Pickled Lemons.
Author:The Good LFE Cookbook
Ingredients
1 whole chicken cut into pieces or 10 chicken thighs
- 1 tablespoon ground ginger
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- 2 teaspoons ground coriander
- 2 teaspoons turmeric
- 1 teaspoon salt
- Juice of one lemon
- 4 red onions, thinly sliced lengthwise
- 6 garlic cloves, sliced
- 1 tablespoon honey
- 4 preserved lemons, roughly chopped, peel included
- 1 1/2 cups oil cured or kalamata olives, pitted and halved
- 1 cup chicken broth
- 1 bunch cilantro, roughly chopped
- Olive oil or ghee
- Salt and pepper to taste
Directions
Toss chicken in salt and spices, cover and let sit for one hour or refrigerate overnight.
Preheat oven to 350.
- Add olive oil to dutch oven or large skillet (if you will be braising in a tagine) over medium high heat and sear chicken pieces until skin is brown and crispy. Remove from pan and set aside. Add onions to pan with honey and caramelize for 30 minutes with a couple generous pinches of salt. Add garlic for last 5 minutes of onion cooking.
- When onions are golden and soft, deglaze pan with lemon juice scraping up brown bits. Toss onion and lemon mixture with 1/2 of the chopped cilantro and broth. Top with chicken pieces. If you are baking in a tagine transfer onions to tagine to assemble. Nestle olives, garlic and preserved lemons around chicken. Season with pepper and place covered pot in oven and bake for 45 minutes - 1 hour until chicken is cooked through. If cooking in a dutch oven cook uncovered for last 15 minutes of cooking so that sauce can thicken.
- Top with remaining cilantro and season to taste with lemon juice, salt and pepper.