Chicken & Lemon Tagine with Lemon & Coriander Couscous

Before visiting Marrakech, I always thought that the typical tagine was made using lamb. In actual fact the most common tagine I came across was made using chicken, in particular chicken and lemon tagine.

Since coming back from Marrakech I have made this dish time and time again and think I have finally perfected it and now even have a tagine pot to cook it all in!

Like any casserole, once all the prep is done you let the time in the oven to really intensify the flavour and produce meat that just falls off the bone. Simple, but delicious!


Ingredients (serves 2):

For the tagine...
Chicken thighs and wings (2-3 per person)
Large knob of butter
1 large onion, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, finely chopped or crushed
1 inch root ginger, grated or finely chopped
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp saffron
1 tsp ras-el-hanout (you made need to hunt this one down - I bought mine in Marrakech!)
1 lemon, both lemon zest and juice
1 tbsp honey
1/2 pint of chicken stock
Large handful of chopped dried apricots
Salt and pepper to season
A sprinkling of flaked almonds

For the couscous...
100g dried plain couscous
100ml boiling water
Juice of half a lemon
Handful of chopped coriander

1. Pre-heat the oven to 200 degrees
2. Melt the butter in a frying pan, adding the chicken and cook until the meat in browned
3. Remove the chicken and on a lower heat, soften the chopped onion in the same frying pan, and once almost ready add the ginger and garlic
4. Now add all of the spices, followed by the chicken, and ensure that the meat is thoroughly coated by all of the spices
5. Next add the honey, stock, chopped dried apricots, lemon zest and juice and season with salt and pepper
6. Transfer the tagine into your tagine pot (or casserole dish) and place in the oven for an hour and a half
7. When the tagine is almost ready, place the dried couscous into a bowl and add the boiling water. After 5 minutes stir the couscous with a fork and add the lemon juice and coriander, adding more boiling water if required
8. Serve the tagine with flaked almonds and enjoy :)

Yelly-fi-felly-food-belly x


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