Tuesday, 4 March 2014

Food | A Moroccan Thank You Meal {Chicken Tagine with Preserved Lemon, Green Olives & Thyme}

We've had a lot of help with our house, and feel incredibly lucky to have such handy, and generous, friends and family.

I cooked up this Tagine as a Thank You to my Big Bro. To be honest, it's the very least I can do, he's been an absolute gem at Kitchen Fitting and saved us a small fortune.

Good job this little Tagine turned out to be very tasty indeed then!

I got this recipe from a book called Tagines & Couscous by Ghillie Basan. I contacted her Publisher Ryland, Peters & Small to see if I could share the recipe with you guys and I can, woop!



Here's what you'll need:

- 8-10 Chicken Thighs or 4 Whole Legs
- 1 tbsp Olive Oil plus a knob of Butter
- 2 Preserved Lemons (I used these ones), cut into strips
- 175g Pitted Green Olives
- 1-2 tsps of dried Thyme or Oregano
- Cous Cous or Quinoa to Serve

For the Marinade:

1 Onion, grated
3 Garlic cloves, crushed
25g fresh Ginger, peeled and grated
Small bunch of fresh Coriander, finely chopped
A pinch of Saffron threads
Freshly squeezed juice of 1 Lemon
3-4 tbsps Olive Oil
Sea Salt & freshly ground Black Pepper


Start by preparing your Marinade. Mix together all your ingredients in a bowl.





Place your Chicken in a shallow dish and rub the marinade into the skin. Cover and refrigerate for 1-2 hours.




When you're ready to cook, heat the olive oil and the butter in a heavy-based casserole.




Remove the chicken pieces from the marinade and brown them in the oil.




Pour in the leftover marinade, and add enough water to come half-way up the sides of the chicken pieces.


Bring to the boil, reduce the heat, cover and simmer for about 45 minutes, turning the chicken from time to time.






Add the preserved lemons, olives and half the dried thyme to the tagine.


At this point the recipe says to cover and simmer for a further 15-20 minutes.

I transferred mine to an actual "tagine" and popped it in a pre-heated 180 degree oven to finish the cooking time. I think if you bothered to schlepp a Tagine all the way back from Marrakech you should probably use it.

Nope, not a bone of contention between Dan and I at all. Who would make their boyfriend a) haggle for said tagine b) realise you wanted to buy another tagine as a gift, and ask him to haggle some more and c) carry said tagines across a very hot and dusty souk back to our hotel, only to be very rarely used?? Nope not me, absolutely not.

Anyway, I digress....

However you decide to finish the cooking, when you're done season to taste with salt and pepper and sprinkle the remaining thyme over the top.



The recipe says to serve with Ghillie's Plain, Buttery Couscous, but I'm trying to be wheat and gluten free for the most part so I served ours with Quinoa and Spinach and a flourish of fresh coriander on top!



I can't say enough good things about this recipe. The chicken was so tender, it literally fell off the bone and the tagine itself tasted heavenly. I loved the freshness of the flavours and the combination was just perfection.

I think the Thank-You Tagine, went down well!

Please note that this is absolutely not a sponsored post. It's just a really great recipe from a fabulous book. I'm excited to try some more! x

Tagines and Couscous by Ghillie Basan is published by Ryland Peters & Small and is available from rylandpeters.com


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