Morocco / Main
Chicken tagine with preserved lemon
Chicken braised with preserved lemons and olives. The sourness comes from the peel, not the flesh.
Ingredients
- Chicken, jointed1.4 kg
- Preserved lemon, peel only2
- Green olives150 g
- Onions, thinly sliced2
- Garlic4 cloves
- Ground ginger1 tsp
- Turmeric1 tsp
- Saffron1 pinch
- Coriander and parsley6 sprigs
- Olive oil60 ml
- Water200 ml
- Salt and pepperto taste
Quantities are auto-calculated from the original recipe as a guide. Items without numbers (e.g. “to taste”) are not changed.
Method 5 steps
Grind the garlic, ginger, turmeric, saffron, chopped herbs, oil, salt and pepper into a paste. Rub it over the chicken and leave it an hour.
Spread the onion in an even layer over the base of the tagine or a heavy pan: it keeps the chicken off the bottom and becomes part of the sauce.
Set the chicken on top skin up, pour the water down the side, cover and cook over a low flame for forty minutes without lifting the lid.
Add the preserved lemon peel in strips and the olives, cover and give it twenty minutes more.
Take the lid off and reduce the sauce for five minutes if it is still loose. Check the salt only at the end: the lemon and olives have already provided it.
