•  Many recipes are made in only one dish, the tagine!  All the ingredients go in together and cook slowly, plus you use the same dish to serve.  That’s a Win-Win.  If you look for recipes, many will say you need to brown the meat ahead of time, I’m here to tell you to skip that step.  The Tagine adds moisture, so browning is unnecessary.
• The health benefits!  Most tagine recipes call for minimal amounts of oil, no frying and the vessel incorporates steam to cook the food and deliver great flavor with the ingredients.
• The sloped walls create the perfect surface for converting rising steam into condensation, which gathers and returns to the bottom of the dish.  The ceramic lid maximizes the moisture sent back down to the ingredients.  This makes the meat super tender and delivers the biggest flavor ROI. (Return on Investment!)
• It’s the original slow cooker.  You can make the same dishes in other pans or pots but using the tagine really cuts down on added fats and delivers great flavor!

A Tagine In A Tagine

If you make a tagine, you’ll make it in a tagine.  That’s right.  The name of this dish and the name of the cooking vessel are the same.  But you can make all types of dishes in a tagine.  From slow cooking rice to poached dishes.  A tagine refers to a Moroccan recipe, cooked in a tagine.  Sometimes it’s lamb or beef or chicken, or even just vegetable based.  Tagine recipes are frequently full of spices, preserved fruits and olives.  

Preserved Lemons 🍋 

You can buy preserved lemons for this recipe at some grocery stores, on line or in many specialty stores.  If you’re adventurous, you can make the preserved lemons at home.  That’s what I’m doing.   Just do it at least a week ahead. Here’s the process.

This is taken from Paula Wolfert’s Seven-Day Preserved Lemons.  Paula Wolfert is known as an expert at Morroccan cooking (and all types of cooking).  In additional to many cookbooks, she also wrote the Clay Pot Cookbook, given to me by my fellow foodies and sometimes cooking buddies, Paula and Tim as a wedding 🎩 👰🏻  gift 🎁  many moons🌛🌜🌚🌕🌖 ago!

For preserved lemons, the peel, pulp and juice from the lemons is used.  

The Lemon Law (Recipe) 🍋

Wash and dry 4 large lemons well and cut each into 8 wedges, skins on.   Trim the ends of the stems.  Put the lemons into a large bowl and toss with 2/3 cup coarse salt. 

Transfer the lemons into a large glass jar, about 6 cup capacity.  Add 1 cup from lemon juice (from about 5 lemons).  Cover a jar (about 6 cup capacity) with a tight fitting glass lid or plastic-coated canning jar lid.  Let the lemons sit out at room temperature for about 1 week, shaking the jar each day to redistribute the salt and the juice.   You can use the lemons as early as 1 week, but they are best when the lemon skins become more translucent. 

How to Cook with Preserved Lemons

To cook with the lemons, remove from the jar and scrape off any of the fruit or white pith and rinse them of the salt.  Slice the lemon skins into thin strips.

 You may keep the lemons in the jar with the salt and add more lemons to the brine as needed.  They will keep this way for several months, refrigerated.  Alternately, remove the lemons from the jar and remove the fruit and pitch, then add enough olive oil to cover the lemons and then store in the refrigerator for up to 6 months.

For the Chicken Tagine with Homemade Preserved Lemons 🥘 🍋🐓

If your tagine or clay pot is not fully glazed, make sure to prepare your pot the night before by soaking it in water.  This is important in order to keep the tagine from cracking during cooking.  I also use a diffuser over the cooktop to keep the tagine from heating unevenly.  If you are making this in a dutch oven or other oven proof pot, you must add stock which is not required in the tagine.

Remove the skin from 6 bone-in chicken thighs, rinse and pat dry.  Set aside.  

Prepare The Marinade 🐓

Into a small bowl or rameken, add 1/2 teaspoon saffron threads and 2 tablespoons very hot water.  Let the saffron steep in the water for about 10 minutes.  In a separate bowl, mix 1 teaspoon each of ground cumin, ginger, coriander and turmeric.  Add 4 large cloves of garlic, chopped and 1 teaspoon salt.   Chop 1/2 cup fresh cilantro or use parsley if you don’t care for the taste of cilantro.  I love cilantro!  Mix the dry ingredients with the steeped saffron and the cilantro or parsley. 

Add the juice of 1 large lemon, mix well. 

Refrigerate

Put the chicken thighs or pieces into a large plastic bag.  Add the marinade and seal the bag carefully.  Massage the marinade into the chicken and refrigerate for 30 minutes up to a few hours.

Low and Slow 🥘 

Using the thinnest setting on your mandolin, slice two medium onions.   On my slicer, its the 1 1/6th inch.  If you don’t have a mandolin, slice the onions as thinly as possible.

Put your heat diffuser onto the cooktop, then the tagine.   Pile the onions onto the tagine. 

Next, add the marinated chicken.   

Set the flame on medium low and let it cook for 2 hours.  Low and slow, the steam will begin to come out of the top of the pot and the onions will nearly melt into the dish as the chicken becomes the most tender, deliciously flavored meat you can imagine and all this without adding a smidge of cooking oil.

After about 90 minutes, add 1/2 cup of olives.  I use a mixture of Kalamata and Spanish olives.  At this time, add the preserved, sliced lemon peel as well.  Cover and continue to cook another 15-30 minutes.

NOTES IF YOU ARE NOT USING A TAGINE

If you are making this in a heavy bottomed pot such as a dutch oven.  Cook as above except add 1 can of chicken or vegetable stock over the piled onions, then add the chicken.  Cover and continue to cook as directed.  You will need to check the pot every 30 minutes to be sure that there is still enough liquid so that the onions and meat are not dry.

To Serve 🍽

Serve the tagine over couscous, rice or with fresh, warm naan.