Moroccan Chicken Tagine with Preserved Lemons and Olives

The only time in my life that I tried preserved lemons was in an iced fermented lemon drink at a Vietnamese restaurant, and it was one of the worst experiences of my life.  So when I saw this, I thought: let's spend a month making these and eat them again!  Well, when you go to the culture that invented the stuff, it turns out they are used in much more pleasant ways, such as this delicious chicken tagine.

Tagines, known by their namesake ceramic or cast iron conic cooking devices famous in Moroccan culture, are nothing more than a stew of protein and vegetables or fruit, often featuring goat, lamb, or kid, but in some cases using chicken, or even chickpeas.  This one features preserved lemon, which is an interesting way of keeping lemons for long periods that involves packing them in salt.  The flavor is extra tart, slightly sour from the fermentation, and only good in small doses.  But man, do they add an interesting flavor to complex sauces like what is created in this dish.

We modified the recipe ordering slightly to be more practical, and I may go back and revise this to use chicken quarters instead of a whole chicken, which we think would be faster and better.  Regardless, this dish was well worth the effort, and had so much going on that we were completely floored by how unique it was.  Highly recommended if you have some time to make preserved lemons on your own, which are actually very easy.

Preserved lemons are incredible in sauces, and not to be eaten out of the jar as a condiment

Moroccan Chicken Tagine with Preserved Lemons and Olives

Modified from Morocco, by Jeff Koehler

• 3-4 cups cooked white long-grain rice
• 1 cup plain greek yogurt
• 3 tbsp milk
• Salt
• 1 tbsp finely chopped fresh mint or 1 tsp dried
• 4.25 lb chicken
• 1 preserved lemon
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 3 tbsp finely chopped flat-leaf parsley
• 3 tbsp finely chopped cilantro
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• ½ tsp turmeric
• Generous pinch saffron threads, dry-toasted and ground
• Salt and freshly ground white pepper
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
• 2 medium red onions, finely chopped
• 1 tbsp butter or smen
• 1 cup green olives, pitted

Scrape the pulp out and preserve the peel for making garnishelater

Quarter the preserved lemon lengthwise, rinse, and remove the seeds.  Without breaking the ppel, scrape away the pulp with a spoon, reserving the peel.  Finely chop the pulp.  In a small mixing bowl, add the lemon pulp and any juices, garlic, parsley, cilantro, ginger, turmeric, saffron, salt and white pepper, olive oil, lemon juice, and 2 tbsp water.  Blend well.

Clip off the chicken wing tips and the tail, and trim any excess fat.  Rinse the chicken and pat dry with paper towels.  In a large pot that will comfortably hold the chicken, create a bed of the red onions.  Set the chicken breast-side up on top of the onions and rub with the saffron mixture, pushing some of the mix under the skin without tearing it.  Add butter to the onions and pour 1 cup of water down the sides of the pot, avoiding the chicken.  Cover and cook over medium heat for 20 minutes.

Turn the chicken breast-side down, cover, and reduce heat to low, and cook for another 20 minutes.  Then add 1 more cup water, loosely cover, and simmer until chicken is very tender, about 50 minutes.  Stir in water as necessary to keep sauce from drying.

While chicken cooks, preheat oven to 350 F.  Prepare the yogurt sauce by whisking together yogurt, milk, a pinch of salt, and the mint in a small bowl.  Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.  Trim preserved lemon peel segments into cool shapes.

After chicken is tender, remove to a plate for a few minutes, pouring juices back into pot / tagine.  Rub chicken with remaining ½ tbsp. butter, place on a baking sheet, and bake in oven for 10 minutes, until crispy.  At same time, heat pot to high, add olives, and cook sauce uncovered until thickened slightly.

Transfer chicken to serving dish and lay cut lemon peel pieces on breast.  Spoon sauce and olives around chicken.  Serve with rice in one bowl and yogurt sauce in another on the side.

Moroccan Lamb Tagine with Saffron and Candied Orange Peel

Thailand is done.  Time to start thinking about our next travels.  We were toying with Morocco, so we decided to check out a book on Moroccan food and make a few things, to see if we liked the flavors.  In the end, despite the library book being free, the resulting trip will probably cost us thousands.  If the food is similar to this, it's totally going to be worth it.  This stew falls under the "meats and sweets" category (sorry, Kevin), which is what I think of for Moroccan food in the first place.  Salty, slightly gamey meat browned thoroughly, served with some kind of preserved fruit and perfumed with the heady aromas of desert spices, like ras el hanout and saffron.  By the way, we found our ras el hanout at Williams-Sonoma, and I would recommend it, rather than making your own blend of 15-30 spices that you might not have, or that probably are none too fresh.

I think I have this dish figured out, except for the part where they say to cut a bone-in leg of lamb into 8 pieces.  What do they want me to do here?  We gave up and went with blade chops, which were already portion-sized, although they didn't look as attractive once finished.  But this was totally worth the effort, and if you already have an actual tagine, you should probably try this (although you probably have already).

A traditional Moroccan spice assortment: ras el hanout (Arabic for "head of the shop"), saffron, turmeric, cinnamon, and ginger

Lamb Tagine with Oranges, Saffron, and Candied Orange Peel

Modified slightly from Morocco, by Jeff Koehler

Serves 4

Total prep and cook time: 2.5-3 hours

• 1 tsp butter, softened
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• ½ tsp ras el hanout
• ½ tsp ground cinnamon
• ½ tsp turmeric
• ¼ tsp freshly ground white pepper
• Generous pinch saffron threads
• Salt
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 2.25 lb / 1 kg bone-in leg of lamb, cut into ~8 pieces (we used lamb blade chops)
• 1 small cinnamon stick, broken in half
• 1 medium red onion, finely chopped
• 1 tsp honey
• 1 Valencia orange, scrubbed
• ¼ cup (50 g) sugar
• 8 cloves
• 1 tsp toasted sesame seeds for garnishing

In a tagine, dutch oven, or pressure cooker, add the butter, ginger, ras el hanout, cinnamon, turmeric, white pepper, and saffron.  Season with salt.  Moisten with the olive oil and blend well.  One by one, place the pieces of lamb in the spice mixture, and turn to coat.  Add half of the cinnamon stick and scatter the onion across the top.

Place the pot over medium heat, cover, and cook, turning the lamb from time to time, until the meat is browned and the onion is softened but not scorched, about 15 minutes.  Add 1 cup water, loosely cover, and cook over medium-low heat for 45 minutes, stirring from time to time.  If using a pressure cooker (PC), go with 30 minutes at pressure, and if using a dutch oven (DO), go to 60 minutes - the tagine is somewhere in between these in terms of cook time, and I'm basing that entirely on my guess based on how things came out, and how I know meat cooks in my pressure cooker.  During this step, deal with the oranges.

We went with 4 lamb shoulder blade chops, already cut into single serving pieces

Meanwhile, peel the orange, reserving the fruit.  Take two of the orange slices and set them aside to get your 2 tbsp juice.  With a knife, scrape away some – but not all – of the white pith from the peel.  Cut the peel into long, very thin strips about 1/8” wide.  In a small pan, bring 1 cup water to a boil.  Add strips of peel and a pinch of salt, simmer for 2 minutes, and drain.  Repeat one more time, then drain, rinse out pan, and return strips to pan with ¾ cup water.  Bring to a boil, then stir in sugar and add remaining cinnamon stick half and cloves.  Simmer until the liquid is syrupy and the strips of peel are tender but still a touch al dente, about 20 minutes.  Stir in 1 tbsp orange juice, remove from the heat, and let cool.

Try to peel the orange into one whole skin, then slice into long strips

After blanching once

Back to the lamb pot, add ½ cup water and remaining 1 tbsp orange juice and cook until the meat is tender, about 45 minutes (30 for PC, 60 for DO).  Add a bit more water if necessary to keep the sauce loose, or remove the lid to evaporate and thicken it.  Stir in the honey and cook the lamb uncovered for a final 5 minutes.

With a sharp knife, cut away any white pith from the reserved orange.  Carefully cut along the membranes separating the segments and remove them.  Lay the segments in a shallow bowl, spoon the syrup from the pan over the segments, and let soak until ready to serve.

To serve, divide lamb among four plates, and top with the sauce, orange segments, and strips of peel.  Lightly sprinkle with sesame seeds.

Moroccan Chickpea Stew

In a bizarre fit of vegetarianism, I decided to make a chickpea stew the other day.  I had something similar at a French bistro, and it was so good that I decided to try it at home.  The beauty was that I had most of the ingredients in my pantry already, so I just had to buy some yogurt (which makes the dish, so don't skip it).

Moroccan cooking is heavily influenced by the French, so that's why I've added thyme to my recipe.  You won't see it in the original pictures, but I added it to the leftovers the next day and reheated on the stove, and it really brought a sweet, perfumed flavor to the dish that elevated it from a somewhat bland stew to something that seemed more, well, global.  If you really want to get crazy, the advice I got yesterday was to add za'atar, an Arab spice blend containing sesame seeds, sumac, thyme, salt, and other spices.  You can also cook this in a tagine if you're lucky enough to have one.

Moroccan Chickpea Stew, served over rice and garnished with greek yogurt

Moroccan Chickpea Stew

Adapted from Cooking Light

• 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1 cup diced yellow onion (about 1 medium)
• 1 cup diced carrot (about 1 large)
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 jalapeño pepper, minced, seeds mostly removed
• 1 1/2 cups cubed waxy potato such as Yukon gold, peeled, about 1 large
• 2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon chili powder
• 1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1 tsp fresh thyme, minced, or 1/2 tsp za'atar seasoning (optional)
• 1 (28-ounce) can diced tomatoes, undrained, or 4-5 fresh tomatoes, peeled
• 1 (15 1/2-ounce) can chickpeas (garbanzo beans), rinsed and drained
• 1 (14-ounce) can vegetable broth
• 3 cups hot cooked rice or couscous
• 1/2 cup plain low-fat yogurt, preferably greek

The setup.  You can use either canned chickpeas or the dried kind, but you'll need to cook them extra if you choose the latter.  FYI, I used a russet and was careful with the cooking time, but Yukon gold is preferred.

I should have used canned tomatoes, but I liked using my heirlooms from my garden.  If you're using whole though, peeling them would be preferable.  See my guide on that here and here.

Heat olive oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat.  Add onion, carrot, garlic, and jalapeño to pan; sauté 6 minutes or until tender.  You can brown these slightly, but make sure not to burn anything.

Saute the more hearty vegetables first

Stir in the potato and next 8 ingredients (through broth).  Bring to a boil.  Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 15 minutes or until potato is tender.  If you use waxy potatoes like Yukon golds, you have some safety margin on overcooking.  If you use russets though, the starch will dissolve and your potato will turn to mush if you go too long.  Just something to be aware of.

Once you've sauteed the stronger vegetables, add the quick cooking potato, tomato, and chickpeas, along with the broth and spices.

The finished stew.  Everything cooks down quickly, so it's a very fast dish.

To serve, plate over rice or couscous.  A nice presentation I had once was to serve in a roasted eggplant half, which is then placed on a bed of couscous.  Top with yogurt and perhaps minced cilantro.