Chicken Tagine with Preserved Lemons
Morocco's defining tagine: bone-in chicken slow-braised with onion, ginger and saffron, finished with strips of preserved lemon and green olives.
Overview
Chicken pieces are rubbed with a spice paste of garlic, ginger, saffron, turmeric, paprika, cumin, salt and olive oil; rest for 30 minutes. Onion sweats slowly in olive oil in a heavy tagine or casserole; the chicken nestles in skin-side-up; just enough water goes in to come halfway up the chicken. Lid on; gentle simmer for 50 minutes. Preserved lemon strips and green olives go in for the last 10 minutes. Off heat, scattered with fresh coriander and parsley.
Ingredients
Chicken
- 1.4 kg chicken (a whole bird jointed into 8 pieces, OR 8 bone-in skin-on thighs)
Spice paste
- 5 garlic cloves (crushed)
- 3 cm fresh ginger (grated)
- 1 large pinch saffron threads (about 20 strands, soaked in 2 tablespoons hot water)
- 1 ½ teaspoons ground turmeric
- 1 teaspoon sweet paprika
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon white pepper
- 1 ½ teaspoons salt
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- ½ lemon (juice)
Tagine
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 onions (large, sliced thin)
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 300 ml water (or light chicken stock)
To finish
- 2 preserved lemons (rinsed; pulp scraped out and discarded; skin sliced into thin strips)
- 150 g green olives (Picholine or cracked Moroccan green; pitted or whole)
- 2 tablespoons fresh coriander (chopped)
- 2 tablespoons fresh flat-leaf parsley (chopped)
To serve
- Khobz (Moroccan round bread), pita or crusty bread
Method
Stage 1 - Spice paste
- In a wide bowl, whisk all the spice-paste ingredients to a thick golden paste.
- Add the chicken pieces; rub the paste thoroughly into all sides and under the skin.
- Cover; rest 30 minutes at room temperature (or up to 4 hours refrigerated).
Stage 2 - Soften the onion
- Heat the 3 tablespoons olive oil in a tagine or wide heavy lidded casserole over medium-low heat.
- Add the sliced onion; cook 12 minutes, stirring, until very soft and just gold.
Stage 3 - Nestle the chicken
- Push the onion to make a base layer.
- Place the chicken pieces skin-side-up on top of the onion.
- Drop in the cinnamon stick.
- Scrape any leftover spice paste from the bowl over the chicken.
- Pour the water around (not over) the chicken - it should come halfway up the meat.
Stage 4 - Simmer
- Cover; bring to a very gentle simmer.
- Cook 50 minutes over low heat. Don't peek too often. The chicken should be tender; the sauce should have reduced and emulsified with the chicken fat into a thick golden gravy.
Stage 5 - Lemons and olives
- Tuck the preserved lemon strips around the chicken.
- Scatter the olives.
- Cook uncovered 10 minutes - the sauce reduces a little further.
Stage 6 - Serve
- Taste the sauce; adjust salt if needed (preserved lemons and olives are salty so usually no adjustment).
- Scatter fresh coriander and parsley.
- Serve from the tagine with bread for mopping.
Notes
- Preserved lemon use: Only the skin is used; the pulp is too salty and bitter for this dish. Rinse the skin under cold water before slicing to remove excess salt.
- Saffron quality: Use real Persian or Spanish saffron threads; not powdered colour. The soaking water is what gets added - that's where the colour and aroma live.
- Don't brown the chicken first: Moroccan tagines are not French braises. The chicken goes in raw onto the softened onion bed; it steam-poaches in its own juices and the spices coat it without searing. Browning gives a different (also good) dish but not a tagine.
Storage
- Refrigerate 3 days; reheats brilliantly and the sauce thickens further.
- Freezes 2 months without the olives (add fresh on reheat).
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