Preserved lemon chicken tagine, also with preserved lemons. Mmm, like braising with a pointy hat!

There aren't a whole lot of different cooking techniques, but there are sure a lot of ways to make cooks feel intimidated with different pots, pans, and specialty apparatuses. Take for instance the tagine. People that are not familiar with it are often confused about the wide shallow bottom and hat-like top. Well, once you know it's just a fancy and efficient braising dish, life gets a whole lot easier. My Yeti wife and I got a tagine as a wedding present and I like to use it occasionally. Here is one of my favorite dishes for the tagine. It's North African in inspiration, even if the ingredients aren't fully authentic. Enjoy! I know the snowdogs like it when they see the tagine come out, as that usually means they get to sit around with me and hang out for a few hours.

If you don't have a tagine you can also do this in any braising dish setup, including transferring things to a crock pot after browning, or using a dutch oven on your stovetop. It will still turn out just as good, but it won't be as cool looking.

You can also do this with lamb, preferably shanks. Just make sure they fit in your tagine.

Also, if you don't want to go to the trouble of making preserved lemons about 4-8 weeks ahead of time for this dish, you can substitute the rind of 2 lemons, but you'll be missing some of the interesting bitter undertones in the dish that come from the preserving process.

Chicken and Preserved Lemon Tagine (Preserved Lemon recipie below)
5-6 chicken thighs, bone in, but you can take the skin off if you want.
2 tablespoons of high-smoke point vegetable oil, like canola or peanut
1/2 large onion, yellow or red, sliced into strips (rings that have been halved)
3 cloves of garlic, either minced, crushed, or sliced thinly
1 preserved lemon, skin only, sliced into thin strips, recipe follows; if you don't have preserved lemons you can use the rind of 2 lemons plus 1 tablespoon of lemon juice.
salt
pepper
3 cloves
1/2 teaspoon of tumeric
1/4 teaspoon saffron
1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
heavy pinch dill
1/2 cup or so of broth, preferably chicken or vegetable, not beef though
2 teaspoons of ground sumac berries (optional, available through specialty spice houses)

Ok, if you don't have a tagine don't worry. You can easily substitute a dutch oven or other stove-top safe braising apparatus (heavy bottom saucepan with tight fitting lid, etc.) for the tagine. If you want to use a crock pot, you'll have to do this in two steps, browning and sauteeing in one pan and then transfer to the crock pot for the long time braising. The rest of my instructions will refer to the tagine only, but you should be able to figure out how to do this in another pan. If not, post a message and I'll get back to you.

First, put the two tablespoons of oil into the tagine and heat over medium high heat. Clean your chicken thighs and remove the skin if you desire. Pat the chicken dry and season the chicken lightly with salt and pepper. When the oil starts to shimmer add the chicken, skin side down. Don't move the chicken for about 5-6 minutes. Turn the chicken over and allow to brown on the other side for 5-6 minutes. Remove the chicken from the pan and set aside in a bowl. This chicken is not fully cooked, you were just browning it for flavor and appearance later.

Keeping the bottom of the tagine over medium-high heat, add your onion and garlic. Reduce the heat to medium and stir, trying to loosen the bits on the bottom of the pan. When the edges of the onion start to become translucent, add the thin strips of preserved lemon, cloves, and tumeric and stir. Don't use the flesh or pith of the lemon as it's really salty and bitter. The magic is in the rind. Keep stirring gently for about 5 minutes, being careful to keep the spices from burning. Increase the heat to high and add the saffron, oregano and dill and stir them in. You'll need to stir this over high heat for about 1 minute. Then carefully add the broth (it should boil pretty vigorously), stir in most of the sumac, place the chicken on top of the onion and spice mixture, and sprinkle the chicken with the rest of the sumac. DON'T STIR at this point. Reduce the heat to low and cover the bottom of the tagine with the top (the hat, as my Bigfoot friends sometime call it). If you're not using a tagine, this is the time to put your snug-fitting lid in place.

Allow this to slowly cook over low low heat for 1 hour. DON'T PEEK. Don't lift the lid off. You'll lose a lot of heat and some of the essential oils from the spices.

After one hour, take off the cover and serve. I like this with jasmine rice or, even better, couscous. This feeds 2 Yeti, or 4 people with a nice salad.


Ok, here's the Preserved Lemons recipe. You need to make these about 4-8 weeks before using. Don't blame me if you didn't read this before starting the tagine recipe above. It's your own fault, silly person.

Preserved Lemons
3-4 lemons
4 tablespoons salt
hot brine solution (2 cups hot water with 2 tablespoons of salt dissolved in it)
clean jam / preserving jars

Cut each lemon into quarters. Press 1 tablespoon of salt into each lemon, about 1/4 tablespoon per quarter of lemon. Put each piece into a clean preserving jar. When finished, pour the hot brine solution over the lemons, making sure the lemons are submerged. You can submerge the lemons if they float with a crumpled bit of clean parchment paper if you need to. Screw on the lids for the jars, allow to cool, and store them in the fridge for at least 4 weeks before using.

See, wasn't that easy? When you use the preserved lemons, you'll want to only use the rind, trimming off and discarding the flesh.

Enjoy!