Yummy Chicken Tagine

Now this is really delicious!

The unusual Moroccan flavours really bring the chicken to life, and you can make it using any old bit of chicken- even cheap drumsticks! I bulked mine out with extra onions and also carrot sticks, but chunks of sweet potato or butternut squash work just as well! Some recipes call for preserved lemon, but I used curls of lemon rind stripped from a raw lemon, and this worked just as well!

You will need:
– 1-2 pieces of chicken per person. Try chunks of breast, thighs, drumsticks or whole legs!
– 1 small onion per person.
– Ground ginger (and/or grated root ginger)
– Cumin seeds (or ground cumin)
– Coriander seeds (or ground coriander)
– Dried apricots
– Enough chicken stock to cover (around 500ml)

Optional extras:
– Butternut squash or sweet potato (chopped into chunks and peeled)
– Olives, preferably purple.
– Carrots (matchsticked)
– Honey

Marinade the chicken in the spice mix for as long as possible.

If you are using brined olives, soak in hot water for as long as possible to reduce the taste. Better yet, buy olives in oil!

Fry off the onions, and place in a casserole dish. Then brown the chicken, and fry with the spice mix for a couple of minutes.

Pour it all into the casserole, along with carrots (if using), olives (if using), dried apricots and butternut squash.

Cover with the stock (and honey if using) and place in oven at 180C for an hour to an hour and a half. If you wish, the lid can be removed for the final half hour to allow some of the liquid to evaporate and the sauce to thicken slightly.

Serve with couscous, quinoa or rice to soak up all the juice. Leftover juice can be eaten as a soup the following day- it was delicious!!