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!