Tagine for 6-8 people
Preparation: approx. 30 minutes.
Roasting time: approx. 2 hours.
My favorite tagine
It can be difficult to find your favorite among the many recipes for tasty Moroccan Tagines/Tajines, but this Tagineret has always had a unique place in my food-loving heart. It has exactly the delicious depth, acidity and power that I love in food. A super tender chicken with salted olives and sour confit lemons, flavored with delicious spices. Precisely because the dish is allowed to stand and simmer gives it so much power and flavor. I typically serve the dish with homemade fries, but you can use many types of side dishes, such as rice, potatoes or some delicious bread.
Tagine or Tajine, both spellings are often used. Tagine comes from Berber and means clay dish. The clay dish has a cone-shaped lid and is a widely used way of preparing food in Morocco. It works like a frying pan, where the food simmers inside the dish and the steam is only led out through a small hole at the top of the cone-shaped lid - the lid's "chimney".
If you choose the beautiful green mottled Tagine that fits dishes, bowls and plates in the same series, you can both prepare the dish directly in the oven and as a serving dish.
There are many different recipes where you can use everything from fish, chicken, beef and lamb and with many different kinds of vegetables and spices. It is really only the imagination that sets the limits.
You will need that
For 4 people
4-6 chicken drumsticks or mixture of lower and upper thighs.
2 onions
4-5 cloves of garlic
1-2 candied lemons
The juice of 1 lemon
1-2 teaspoons of ginger
1-2 teaspoons cumin
1-2 teaspoons of turmeric
1 teaspoon of cinnamon
400 g green pitted olives
A large handful of fresh cilantro
1 chicken bouillon cube and 1 large glass of water
Oil for frying
Season with salt and pepper
Course of action
- Cut the onions into small cubes and brown them in a little oil.
- Brown the chicken pieces and add all the spices.
- Next, add water, broth and fresh coriander and let it simmer for a short time, after which you distribute a piece of chicken and sauce into each Tagine (that is, if it is portion tagines and otherwise fill it all in one large Tagine).
- Place your Tagine in the oven at 150-170 degrees for one hour (can also be placed on the grill at a low flame). If you have bought the white Tagine and have a gas burner, you can also let it simmer over the gas burner, whereas if you have bought the green one, you must stick to an oven or gas grill, as only the white tagines can withstand direct fire .
- Take out the tagine and add the olives, pickled lemons and fresh coriander and put the tagine back in the oven for approx. 30 minutes
Serve with homemade fries, potatoes, rice or fresh bread.
Accessories for your Tagine/Tajine: I love homemade fries for this dish. But it can also easily be eaten with rice, potatoes, cauliflower rice or fresh bread.
Condiments: In Morocco, you usually add spices to taste, and I have to admit that I also cook that way myself. For me, cooking is a way of expressing myself and depending on my mood, I add more or less spices and experiment with cooking in different ways. You can leave out the coriander and cinnamon if you don't feel like it. You can also easily add a little chilli to the dish, it also tastes really good.
Roasting time: In Morocco, you don't worry too much about the cooking time and with a Tagine you can easily let it simmer for hours without it going wrong, as long as you make sure that there is still some sauce left in the dish, then your Tagine really can't take too long.
Bon appetite!
Once you have tried this tagine, you can try one of my other tagine recipes. Find them here.
If you want to know more about the origin of the tagine, read my blog post about it. Here you will find e.g. an original tagine recipe from the 13th century. Read it here.
