Sunday, January 28, 2007

Chicken Tagine


While searching for a good new one-pot/two-night dish on Epicurious.com, I came across Chicken Tagine. Wikipedia then informed me that a Moroccan Tagine (or Tajine) is the name for clay pot that the dish known as "tagine" is traditionally cooked in - as well as the dish, itself. Although we are lacking the clay pot, hopefully we can replicate the Tagine as best as possible with what we got!

I started out by coating bone-in chicken thighs, wings and drummies with hot curry powder and browning them in a hot oiled pan, after which I removed them and set them aside. I then added a large onion (thinly sliced), and cooked that on medium low for 5 minutes, at which time I added about 6 cloves of minced garlic and about a tbsp of minced ginger. After cooking that for 5 minutes more, I added in my spice mix (1 ½ tbsp smoked paprika, ½ tsp ground coriander, ½ tsp cumin, ½ tsp cayenne and 1/8 tsp cinnamon.) In goes a little more than 2 cups of water, 2 15oz cans of rinsed chickpeas, ¾ cup canned diced tomatoes and their juices, 1 couple tbsp chopped cilantro stems(!), 2 tbsp lemon juice and some very thin slices of lemon. Bring that up to a boil, cover and simmer for 10 minutes.



At this point, I returned the chicken to the pot for 20 minutes. In another pan I put 1 ½ cups of water, ½ cup chopped dried apricots and some cinnamon…bring to a boil and keep on simmering until liquid becomes glaze-like. After 20 minutes, add the apricot mixture, 2 cups of frozen peas and about 1 cup frozen carrots to the tagine. Also, add some salt to your liking and some ground pepper. Let all the flavors meld for another 5-10 minutes et voila! Garnish with some freshly chopped mint and you have a winner!

The only thing I would omit the next time would be the slices of lemon…although I had sliced them very thin, I still got a little bitterness from the rind. Just add more lemon juice instead!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dang that looks good! I wonder if it'll work in a crockpot. That's the perfect kind of meal for this time of year, something that'll really stick to the ribs.

wheresmymind said...

Can't go wrong with the chickpeas!

Jeff said...

if it's too lemony, just squeeze a half lemon into the stew and then put just the peel of one lemon in the pot. best of both worlds.

another great tagine addition is mediterranean olive.