I cooked my first Chicken Tagine courtesy of a recipe in actual fact found in a book on Parisian cuisine (thanks to Frances and Kirsten), notwithstanding the fact that the Tagine is a North African delight, with Morocco being particularly popular for the dish. Of course the purveyors of the Tagine to France (and therefore providing the recipe in this book) were North African immigrants, with a particular influx in the late 20th century bringing wonderful, delicious food from home, leaning heavily towards spicy and slow-cooked dishes which are as fun to cook as well as, obviously, consume! This recipe is precisely one of those!
The original recipe has been altered somewhat from its delicious and simple, original make-up, through various tweaks and additions over the years, from a bit of research, a bit of trial and error, and the odd (succeeded AND failed attempts) learning curve.
As the title suggests, this Chicken Tagine recipe is one of the best things to fall back on when wanting to produce something super brill, effortlessly, whether for a dinner party or simply just as something nice to do for dinner.
The reason I put so much faith in this: It's easy (a one pot dish), very tasty, cheap (as most ingredients get re-used over and over) and fairly, well as slow-cooking goes, quick...ish! Most of all it's super efficient; whilst the food is slowly cooking, it allows time to be spent on something else...say a starter, or dessert , or perhaps both (much more like it), or the chance to read, shower, change, watch something awesome like an episode of Madmen...Alex just gained 'extra life-tip' bonus pointage!
Now before I begin, its important to inform you that the measurements may not be exact, as I tend to just make this by sight. In all honesty, that just isn't such a big deal for this dish, within reason. I would say just use all specifics as a guideline, and would always encourage experimenting!!
Of course, if you have an actual Tagine (an example of such pictured below), then that is obviously, you know, terrific. But, if not, then a deep sided frying pan will work fine too (which is what I use).
Ingredients - Serves 4 (or 2 for people like me)
Prep time - 10 mins
Cooking time - 2 1/4 hours
2 tbsp vegetable oil
Chicken legs or thighs - 1.5 Kg
2 large onions - peeled and sliced with the grain
4-6 garlic cloves (preferably 6 - the more the better) - crushed
1 tbsp each of Turmeric, ground cinnamon, ground ginger
1 dessert spoon of cumin seeds
Harissa paste (can be found in large supermarkets and Asian foodstores)
750ml - 1 litre of chicken stock
Salt and pepper for seasoning
1 preserved lemon (can be found in large supermarkets and Asian foodstores) - deeply pricked all over
75g Raisins
75g Dried apricots - halved
1 small sweet potato (not too much to avoid OTT sweetness - save for dessert!) - peeled, sliced and quartered
1 dessert spoon of ground almond
large handful of chopped, fresh coriander leaves
To serve with:
250 - 400g Couscous (depends on your appetite/metabolism(/in my case probably greediness))
40 - 50g Raisins
40 - 50g dried apricots
40 - 50g flaked almonds (optional)
Vegetable stock - enough to cover couscous by half an inch
Directions
1. For the cumin seeds, heat a pan on high heat, and toast and toss them for about 15 seconds (i.e once you can smell the aroma), then transfer to a spice grinder or as I use, a pestle and mortar, and grind to a powder. You can use readily ground cumin, but this just ain't as good my friend!
2. Add the Vegetable oil in the tagine or pan (I use the deep sided pan - as that is what I have at my disposal as I imagine most people would), and on a medium heat, add the sliced onions, and soften for around 10 minutes, followed by the crushed garlic and soften for a further five minutes, stirring regularly.
3. Now add the chicken thighs skin side down and fry until nicely golden. Reverse and cook on the more fleshy side until, again, golden.
4. Now add in a touch of the chicken stock along with the ground cumin, cinnamon, turmeric and ground ginger, and mix this all around to coat the chicken and pervade through the whole dish. You will need to cook this for a couple of minutes before adding the remainder of the chicken stock, enough to cover the meat, and bring this to the boil, before taking down to a low heat simmer.
5. At this stage, add a dash of the salt and pepper, harissa paste - whatever you feel your lil taste buds can brave (its hot stuff - I normally add 1 - 2 tbsp worth), the raisins, apricots, preserved lemon and sweet potato.
6. This will need to simmer for 1 1/2 hours. About 1 hour in, add the ground almond and stir this in.
7. Once the simmering stage is done, remove the chicken and set aside somewhere to keep warm/hot whilst the liquid is now reduced on a high heat for around 15 - 20 mins, or to the desired consistency. Traditionally tagines are only briefly simmered and are quite liquidy, but I prefer mine to be slightly thick.
8. Finally, add the chicken back in to dish and ensure this is piping hot! The chopped fresh coriander can be stirred in at this stage, along with extra seasoning if so desired.
9. Serve on top of couscous, simply prepared by putting all ingredients into a pan, and adding enough boiled veg stock to cover the couscous with half an inch to spare (picture to follow). Leave to stand for 5 -7 mins, as the couscous soaks up the stock.
As the average Joe-Bloggs-on-the-street meercat would say, simples!
Photos are to follow, but I hope you enjoy this, and let me know of any improvements to the recipe you think should be included. Lets.push.things.forward and strive to support open source...ness!
