
- Yield: 4
- Prep Time: 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 2h 00 min
Moroccan Chicken Tajine
So the store around my house was having a special sale for tajine dishes a couple weeks ago. For weeks I would stop at the ones still sitting there and contemplating whether I wanna get it or not (it really was contemplating whether I have a place to store it or not, I did want it really badly). Earlier this week, I finally caved in and bought it, knowing nothing about how to use a tajine or any recipes to make.
So I spend a good amount of my Saturday morning today to study recipes and cooking techniques. Sind I didn't get a heat diffusor to use the tajine on the stove top, it was clear that I had to use my oven to cook. That's what you want to hear, when its 90° outside and even hotter inside. But I went for it anyway.
The recipe I came up with is in fact a hybrid of several recipes I found online and I was seriously amazed about how great it turned out. There is only one thing I would change - which I incorporated into this recipe already. Since it was my first try, I didn't quite trust the instructions that said to put the raw meat into the tajine, so I seared mine in a pan first. Totally not necessary and I believe the result would be even better without doing it.
In the recipe, I was using Ras el Hanout but if you can't find it in your local supermarket, you can easily just make a spice mixture yourself. It's just a combination of coriander, cumin, clove, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, ginger, cardamom. There are plenty of recipes online that tell you how to mix your own.
Ingredients
- Boneless, Skinless Chicken Thighs - 6
- Red Onion - 1 medium
- Carrots - 2 medium
- Chickpeas - 1 can
- Dried Apricots - 1/2 cup
- Dried Figs - 1/2 cup
- Olive Oil - 4 tbsp
- Chicken Stock - 1/2 cup
- Ras el Haount - 2 tbsp
- Salt, Pepper - to taste
- To Serve
- Fresh Apricots - 2
- Fresh Parsley - 2 tbsp
- Roasted Almonds - 2 tbsp
Instructions
- Peel the onion and cut into slices. Cover the bottom of the tajine with the onion slices. Salt and sprinkle some Ras el Hanout over them.
- Peel the carrots and cut them into sticks of about 2 inches and arrange neatly over the onions. Salt and season with Ras el Hanout.
- Rinse the chickpeas under running water, drain, and put into a bowl.
- Cut the dried figs and apricots in half or quarters and add to the chickpeas.
- Sprinkle on some salt and about 1 tbsp of Ras el Hanout and mix well.
- Dry the chicken and season with salt, pepper, and the leftover Ras el Hanout.
- Pile the chicken in the middle of the dish.
- Add the chickpea mix around the meat.
- Mix oil and chicken stock and pour around the rim of the dish to not wash the spice away.
- Cover and put into a cold oven.
- Set the temperature to 300°F / 150°C and let simmer for 2 hours.
- To serve, cut the apricots into wedges and arrange over the cooked dish.
- Chop parsley and almonds and sprinkle over everything.