Dinner · 70 min · moroccan

Chicken Tagine with Preserved Lemon & Olives

This is the kind of Moroccan dinner you’ll make on repeat — chicken and onion, 70 minutes, big payoff. It is weeknight cooking that still hits your targets — 63 grams of protein per serving. Leftovers keep well, so it doubles as next-day lunch without any extra work.

✓ USDA-verified nutrition data

Ingredients

• 2 lb Chicken
• 2 Onion
• 4 cloves Garlic
• 1 tbsp Ginger
• 1 tsp Turmeric
• 0.25 tsp Saffron
• 1 Preserved lemon
• 0.75 cup Green olives
• 0.25 cup Olive oil
• 0.5 cup Cilantro
• 0.25 cup Parsley
• 1.5 tsp Salt

Steps

1. Bloom the saffron in 2 tablespoons of hot water — it should turn the water a deep sunset orange in a minute. This tiny step perfumes the entire tagine.
2. Brown the chicken pieces in the olive oil in the base of a tagine or Dutch oven until golden on all sides. Do not skip the browning; it builds the sauce’s depth.
3. Add the sliced onions, garlic, ginger, turmeric, and the saffron liquid. Toss to coat, then pour in 1.5 cups of hot water.
4. Cover and simmer on the lowest heat for 40 minutes, until the chicken is tender and the onions have melted into a silky sauce.
5. Quarter the preserved lemon, scrape away the pulp, and slice the peel into strips. Stir the peel and the olives into the tagine and simmer 10 minutes more.
6. Shower with cilantro and parsley and serve directly from the tagine with crusty khobz for scooping. The preserved lemon peel is edible — and the best bite.

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