This is another recipe my daughter tried from Ayesha Curry’s cookbook. It is called Chicken Tagine in her cookbook. I personally do not own a tagine so I feel kinda bad keeping the word in the recipe, a tagine is a conical pottery cooking vessel, I am sure you have seen one if you have ever walked through a kitchen store. The top looks a little like a volcano, at least it does to me.

Most tagine recipes are generally made up with aromatics, veggies, a meat and some spices, they cook over a long period of time. This recipe you can make in about 30 minutes and has wonderful aroma and flavor in such a short amount of time in the kitchen. Great for a weeknight meal. You can even pick up a rotisserie chicken on your way home from somewhere, I guess I can’t say work anymore for me at least. I have been working from home for a year now.

While my daughter was making this the other night for dinner, she was trying to pit some olives. I don’t own a tool for that either. I googled for her how to pit an olive. It said to smash the olive with the side of your knife. Voila the pit comes right out. Now this method works as long as you are not stuffing them or want them super pretty. But for our dinner it worked out perfectly. Of course you can skip this step if you can find them already pitted in your store, she could not.

Chicken Tagine

dclarkabal

A warm feeling dish with great flavors - comes together quickly

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Ingredients

  

• 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 medium yellow onion diced
• 1 tablespoon fresh ginger minced, or from a tube/bottle
• 4 cloves garlic minced
• 2 teaspoons ground turmeric
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 preserved lemon peel finely chopped
• 8 pitted Medjool dates chopped
• 1/2 cup brown lentils
• 4 cups chicken stock
• 2 teaspoons kosher salt
• 1 pinch saffron
• 1 cup Castelvetrano olives pitted
• 1 15 ounce garbanzo beans drained and rinsed, we used great northern beans
• 3-4 pounds chicken, boneless thighs or breasts store bought or salt and pepper some chicken breasts and bake in the oven
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley leaves chopped for garnish

Instructions

 

• If you are cooking boneless chicken breast; pre-heat oven to 350'F season it liberally with salt and pepper. Place on a sheet pan and bake for 30-40 minutes. Once cooked through roughly chop.

  If you are using a rotisserie chicken you can shred it while everything else is cooking.
• In a medium Dutch oven or a heavy bottomed pot over medium-high heat, add the olive oil, Add the onion and a pinch of salt, cook while stirring for a couple of minutes. Add the ginger and garlic and cook for another minute. Stir in the turmeric, black pepper and cinnamon and cook for 30 seconds. Stir in the preserved lemon, dates and lentils. Add the stock and the salt and saffron. Bring to a boil. Cover the skillet and cook, stirring occasionally, until the lentils are cooked through. About 25 minutes.
• Stir in the chicken, either shredded or roughly chopped let sit for 5 minutes to meld. Serve from the pot or transfer to a serving dish. Garnish with fresh parsley.