Tagine Baked Moroccan Chicken – A New Cuisine To Love

Tagine cooking has never been in my wheelhouse. Until now.

This pandemic has urged us all to stay close to home. And for me, that meant feeding my thrift store shopping habit by heading to our garage! (Read about that trip HERE.)

That’s where I discovered a brand new tagine that had been gathering dust in a cupboard for years. When I pulled that cooking utensil out of the cupboard I even found a small recipe booklet inside! So it was an easy decision on what to make in my maiden voyage of tagine cooking.

A tagine is an earthenware vessel comprised of two parts. A wide, shallow base in which the food is cooked, and an unusually shaped conical lid.  This same design has been used for centuries to cook meat, poultry, vegetables, fruit and spices very slowly so the finished dish has “married” all those wonderful flavors into a succulent dish.

It was originally thought to have been designed to limit the amount of water needed during cooking since fresh water has always been an issue in the arid regions of North Africa and Morocco. When steam is produced inside, it cools and re-condenses as it hits the sidewalls so, instead of evaporating away, moisture is retained.

Meemaw’s Tip: When removing from the oven, remember to ALWAYS remove the lid pointing AWAY from you since there is so much steam under the lid you could be burned.

Even though some tagine recipes say it can be used on the stovetop (at very low temps!) I wasn’t about to risk cracking it. So I chose a recipe that cooked in the oven. 

The recipe?

Tagine Baked Chicken with Sticky Tomato, Honey and Almond Sauce…

First? I toasted a handful of sliced almonds just until I began to smell their nutty aroma. And I set them aside for later. (Watch closely…they can burn in a heartbeat!)

While the almonds toasted, I pulled a half a boneless chicken breast out of the freezer. It was so huge I was able to get four portions out of it! I let it thaw until I could cut it into equal portions to allow even cooking. Each piece got a sprinkle of coarse kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper before I lightly browned it in a skillet coated with Extra Virgin Olive Oil. Then I removed them from the skillet and placed them in the tagine to wait for the rest of the ingredients. 

In that same skillet I added a little more olive oil and I added the roughly diced onion and minced garlic. I sauteed until the onions were softened.

Next I dumped in the diced tomatoes.

And I added the sticky honey. I didn’t bother to measure it. And about that honey? It’s the most amazing honey I’ve ever had…and I even met the bees who produced it! Read all about THAT adventure right HERE.

Meemaw’s Tip: When measuring any sticky item, first spray your measuring utensil with cooking spray. The sticky stuff will slide right out!

The recipe called for fresh thyme leaves so I checked out my just-emerging thyme in my herb garden. I was able to pick a few sprigs…

But I needed a little more. So I added some dried thyme from my favorite Amish store.  Stringtown Grocery is an amazing place filled with stuff I love. (Check it out right HERE.)

I mixed all of the ingredients together in the skillet. Then I dumped in the toasted almonds and gave it a stir.

Next I tucked half a cinnamon stick between the chicken pieces.

Then I dumped the skillet full of yumminess on top of the chicken.

Into The Oven

I put the lid on the tagine and I popped in into a 400 degree oven for about 40 minutes. (I wish you could have smelled the aroma wafting from that oven!)

The recipe booklet said to serve with couscous, but turns out I was all out of couscous. So I substituted quinoa.  (Remember the pandemic?) 

I decided to “doctor it up” as Mom used to say. I cooked the quinoa in chicken stock to add more flavor. And I added some dried fruits in keeping with the Moroccan theme. (I had dried apricots and dried figs on hand so that’s what I used.)

I took the tagine out of the oven and I CAREFULLY removed the lid to avoid being scalded by the steam. And my verdict on that chicken? It was amazing!

In fact the entire meal was delicious!

If you don’t have a tagine in YOUR garage I bet you could make this dish by substituting a heavy casserole dish with a tight fitting lid. It’s definitely worth trying!

Turns out shopping in the garage can lead to very good things!