Chicken tagine

Tagine I think Is the name of the dish that you are supposed to cook any thing like this in .  A sort of flat dish with a conical cover . As far as I am aware the ides it that the food steams its self, as it comes from north Africa and to use water just to boil things in is I supposed a bit of a waste of water.  The idea is that every thing steams in its own juice as you cook it slowly.

For this tagine you will need,

125g/4½oz green olives

100ml/3½fl oz olive oil

1 large onion

4 chicken breasts

2 garlic cloves

½g saffron threads

1 tsp ground ginger

Good pinch of ground cardamom

Good pinch of ground cloves

Good pinch of cinnamon

Good pinch of nutmeg

1tsp of chilli powder

1tsp ground coriander

1stp cumin

1tsp turmeric

1 tsp freshly ground black pepper

The zest and juice of  1 large lemon

 The zest and juice of  1 large orange

3 tsp chopped fresh coriander

1 tsp chopped fresh parsley

Now if you want to be totally authentic and get the spice mix just right then you want to get some “ras-el-hanout” this is the name of the spice blend that you use to cook this kind of dish with.  However, if you cannot then just use the dry spice that I have listed and you will have a fairly authentic dish. Also I do not exact weights for this dish as most of the time if I am cooking it it’s for people I know so some times I use more chilli and some times nutmeg or cinnamon. The best thing I can say is adjust the spices as you go.

Start by heating the oil in a heavy saucepan on a low heat and add the onions and cook till soft.  Then get your chicken in to pot and brown that off with the onions.  As it cooks add all the dry spices letting then fry in to the oil and with the chicken. Then get the olives and the juice of the lemon and orange in the pan.  Along with the zest, what I like to do is cut the zest off with a knife and slices it in to very fine strips, but make sure that there is no pith.  Then just cover with a lit and let it continue to cook on a very low heat.

Keep a eye on it and add a little water if you have to but just let it all cook and then at the end add the olives and let them warm through.  And then add the parsley and coriander and serve into bowls with some cous cous.

What I like about this dish is that it is spice and fruity all at the same time excellent for a casual dinner party as you can just cook it slowly as you sit and talk to your guests.