Chicken & Preserved Lemon Tagine
By: Audrey Shiu
Published: Thursday, May 14, 2015 - 5:26am

Ingredients




Olive oil
Two small white onions, diced
Two garlic cloves, finely chopped
A small piece of ginger, grated
Four chicken legs (I removed the skin, but if you prefer, leaving the skin and searing it can help create a nice golden brown on the chicken)
Chicken broth
Handful of coriander, coarsely chopped
Pitted green olives
One whole preserved lemon, sliced (and more for garnish)
Two tsps Harissa (Tunisian chilli paste) / chilli powder for heat
One tsp cumin powder
One tsp ginger powder
One tsp turmeric or 1/2 tsp saffron powder
Dried whole chilis to garnish

Preparation

1 Sauté the diced onions and garlic in the pot on low heat just to sweat the onions. While doing so, pan fry the chicken legs in a separate pan just to get a golden brown on both sides. 2 Add the cumin, ginger and turmeric to the onions and garlic. 3 Place the chicken legs side by side into the pot with the onions and add a light chicken broth (unsalted) just enough but not covering the chicken. Add the sliced preserved lemon and green olives. The lemon is sour and salty so there is no need to add any salt to this dish. 4 Let the broth reduce, add the harissa and stir. Turn the chicken over and spoon the sauce over the meat. 5 When the chicken is cooked, garnish with chopped coriander, dried whole chilis and sliced preserved lemon. 6 Serve this dish along with fluffy cous cous :)

About

Tagine is a North African dish and traditionally cooked in a tagine pot made of pottery. If you’ve ever been to Morocco, you will notice souks or markets selling tagine pots of different sizes. The smallest pots can serve up to two people while the larger ones can serve around five people. Some are glazed and are hand painted with different colors. They make great souvenirs but make sure to bring a large suitcase if you ever plan to make a trip! I used a regular pot for my recipe and cooked the tagine on the stove top, however I personally prefer to cook it over open fire and in a cast-iron pot like Le Creuset (if only I had one here in college!). Cooking it over open fire can really help the onions caramelise and the juices come together to make an incredible reduced sauce. Alternatively, you can transfer your pot into the oven and let the stew cook that way.