Chicken Tagine with Apricots
Chicken Tagine is a fragrant Moroccan chicken dish with new flavors and a delicious savory-sweet sauce. Tender chicken, warm spices with rich sauce infused with garlic, ginger and cinnamon. A comforting meal perfect with couscous or with crusty bread.
Servings: 8 Servings
Ingredients
For the chicken marinade:
- 8 bone in skin on chicken thighs
- 5 garlic cloves minced about 4 teaspoons
- 2 teaspoons turmeric
- 2 teaspoons ground ginger
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon ground coriander
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- ¼ cup parsley chopped
- ¼ cup fresh cilantro chopped
- 1 teaspoon Salt or to taste
- 1 Tablespoon olive oil
- 1 Tablespoon harissa paste or to your liking
- Pulp of ¾ preserved lemon
For the vegetables mix:
- 2 Tablespoons ghee or olive oil
- 3 onions sliced
- ¾ cup dry apricot sliced 120g
- ⅓ cup golden raisins 40g
- 1 cup boiling water or chicken stock
Optional:
- 2 serrano peppers
- Toasted almonds or pine nuts for serving
Instructions
Prepare the chicken:
- Place chicken on a cutting board and make some slits in the thighs.
- In a large bowl combine chicken with all the marinade ingredients making sure to get some into the slits.
- Marinate chicken for 30 minutes or up to 24 hours refrigerated
Make the tagine:
- Place apricots, and raisins if using, in a large bowl and cover with boiling water and soak for 30 minutes.
- In a large dutch oven add one tablespoon of ghee and sear chicken from all sides until golden brown. Remove chicken into a plate and set aside.
- In the same pot melt the remaining tablespoon of ghee and saute onions with the serrano peppers is using until soft and tender.
- Drain apricot and raisins.
- Add water or chicken stock, apricot, raisins and add the chicken back to the pot.
- Bring to a boil then reduce heat, cover and let it cook until done, 30 minutes
Optional step:
- When everything cooks pour the content of the pot into a baking dish and broil until chicken is blistered.
- Serve with couscous garnished with toasted almonds or pine nuts.
