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.
✓ USDA-verified nutrition data
589 calories
63g protein
14g carbs
32g fat
3g fiber
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
- 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.
- 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.
- Add the sliced onions, garlic, ginger, turmeric, and the saffron liquid. Toss to coat, then pour in 1.5 cups of hot water.
- Cover and simmer on the lowest heat for 40 minutes, until the chicken is tender and the onions have melted into a silky sauce.
- 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.
- 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.