Tangy Moroccan Tagine

I was reading about compensatory remedies in contract cases when I suddenly remembered that I had two jars of olives in the fridge.

Then I thought I have never really cooked with olives. Which then got me thinking about the amazing tagines I had in Morocco jewelled with olives. So off I went on a quest to find some random recipes with a set of ingredients in my head. After a few minutes inside an internet hole, it all made sense. 

Not compensatory remedies of course but my questions about how to cook chicken with olives. I then decided that once I do finish answering my questions about remedies, I will cook Moroccan Style Chicken with olives and lemons.

But first, two points:

1) The authentic recipe calls for preserved lemons, which I didn’t have but I thought of a way around it. However, if you can get preserved lemons, great! 

2) I didn’t cook this in a Tagine because although we do have one, you a need a special silver thing to put under it to level out the heat from the stove. Also it takes much longer to cook that way. 

So its not all that authentic but pretty close!

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Ingredients

Marinade for Chicken:

½ Chicken

A few strands of Saffron

Less than ½ Tsp Tumeric

½ Tsp Red Chilli Flakes

1  Tsp Salt

½ Tsp Cumin Powder

½ Tsp Ginger Powder

1 Tbsp Crushed Ginger

1 Tbsp Crushed Garlic

Tagine:

Juice of 1 Lemon 

1 Cup Chicken Stock

1-2 Carrots

1 Onion

1 Cup of Olives (with/without stones, with filling – whatever you want/have)

1 Lemon depulped and cut into thin strips

1 Dried lime (not necessary at all as they are pretty hard to find – if you want, they are available at Iranian grocery stores)

1 Cinammon Stick

Method:

1) Marinate the chicken with all the listed ingredients. For the saffron, mix it with a small amount of water and then pour over the marinade. Massage the marinade into the chicken and then refrigerate for 2/3 hours before cooking.

2) In around ¾ Tbsp of oil brown the chicken and then take it out in a separate dish.

3) In the same dish add the onions, cinnamon stick and fry for around 10 minutes until translucent and soft.

4) Now add the chicken back and after 2 minutes add the chopped carrots.

5) Mix the lemon juice with the stock and pour over the stock. Once the stock starts to bubble, add in the olives, preserved lemon and the small pieces of cut lemon.

6) Let it boil for a few minutes. Now lower the heat completely. Let this cook for at least 20/25 so that the chicken softens and the stock reduces.

8) After 25 minutes open the lid and on high heat reduce the sauce as much or as little as you want. If you want to reduce it substantially take the chicken out so that it doesn’t over cook and just evaporate the sauce on a high heat before adding the chicken back. (Make sure you pick out the cinnamon stick before serving). 

9) Finish off with some coriander and serve with rice or cous cous.

The Rice

I made brown onion rice. Which is essentially frying of some onion until brown, then adding uncooked rice followed by water and cooking the rice in a pilau style, really simple but gives the rice a lot of flavour.

We do this a lot in our family, as you can flavour the rice in many different manners and different vegetables.

Saffron 

Yes I realise I used saffron. If you don’t have it, I would suggest using paprika as that will help give the dish a similar colour. Obviously the flavour will be very different but a small amount of paprika will work well too!

If you can, do buy some Saffron because its flavour, colour is unlike anything else plus it makes you feel fancy when cooking. 

The recipe may seem long but its actually a pretty easy dish and has a lot of depth in its flavour. Its got quite a tangy taste and isn’t spicy at all. Of course as I had a dried lime, that added a lot of depth to the tagine because those things are packed with flavour. However I think even without the lemon juice, the lemon skin will help give it that sourness. 

This dish reminded me lots and lots of Morocco and all the amazing food I had there. The food there doesn’t necessarily have spice, as in chilli spice, but they cook with a lot of warm spices which creates dishes which have many levels of flavour. 

When I cook something like this I like to look at lots of different recipes online. Read up on all the different ways people cook the same dish and then adapt it to my style. I think that’s a better way of doing it then following one recipe verbatim. That doesn’t give you any room to play around. Also some recipes have techniques and nuances which others don’t. Hence its good to merge them together to create one unique one. 

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Thank you for reading my story about lemons, tangines and remedies. I hope even if you never bother cooking it, it was an enjoyable few minutes. 

Ciao Ciao

Shanzé