I love tagines – the exciting Moroccan flavours aren’t quite like anything else I’ve ever tasted. They really know how to mix spicy, sweet, savoury and sour. And this one pot chicken and green olive tagine is an absolute delight.
This is a great dish to cook if you have people coming over; you just throw everything in the pot, put it in the oven and forget about it until you’re ready to eat. You can double or even triple this recipe if you’re feeding a crowd – just be careful with the spices, and only add a little more at a time.
This works well with plain couscous (which is what I like to eat it with), or you could jazz up your couscous with pomegranate seeds and chopped mint, or serve with rice.
This also keeps and freezes brilliantly, in fact it tastes better a day later, so best to make more than you need!
Ingredients, Substitutions and Variations
- Chicken thighs – you can use bone in or boneless chicken thighs for this tagine, but make sure they are skinless. Skin can get a rubbery texture in a recipe like this. Thigh is better than breast, which has a tendency to go dry and doesn’t have as much taste.
- Olive oil – or vegetable oil.
- Onions and garlic – use white or yellow onions.
- Ras el hanout – a delicious Moroccan spice mix. You can make your own if you can’t get hold of it.
- Ground ginger – don’t use fresh, it’ll be too strong for this recipe.
- Cinnamon stick – or substitute for half a teaspoon of ground cinnamon.
- Preserved lemons – these are really necessary for providing the perfect bitter note to this dish. If you can’t find them, you can make your own.
- Honey – for sweetness.
- Green olives – it’s easiest to get stoneless green olives for this, so that you don’t have to remove them first or pick them out while eating.
- Chopped tomatoes – any kind will do.
Top tips for making this tagine:
- Only brown the chicken to start with
When you first fry the chicken in the olive oil, DON’T worry about cooking it all the way through at that point. If you do, you will overcook it. Just brown it, then continue with the recipe. It’ll get plenty of cooking time.
- You can cook on the hob, too
If you like, you can cook this tagine on the hob rather than in the oven. At the point when the tagine is transferred to the oven in the recipe, simply leave on the hob on a low heat and cook for 45 minutes. Just make sure to stir it every now and then so that it doesn’t stick to the bottom.
- Make it a full meal
If you don’t want to serve this tagine with couscous or rice, you could bulk it out with chickpeas. Simply add two tins of chickpeas when you add the chopped tomatoes.
One Pot Chicken and Green Olive Tagine
Save This RecipeIngredients
- 650 g skinless chicken thighs bone in or bone out is fine
- 2 tbsps olive oil
- 2 onions
- 3 cloves garlic
- 2 tbsps ras-el-hanout
- 1 tsp ground ginger
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 2 preserved lemons
- 2 tbsps runny honey
- 150 g pitted green olives
- 2 x 400g tins chopped tomatoes
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 160 degrees celsius.
- Put the chicken thighs and olive oil in a casserole dish on the hob on a high heat and sizzle until browned on all sides.
- Add the chopped onions and garlic and cook for a further 2 minutes, stirring to ensure it doesn’t stick.
- Add the ras-el-hanout, ginger, cinnamon, chopped lemons, honey and olives. Stir well.
- Tip in the chopped tomatoes and 200ml cold water, stir, season with salt to taste, then put the lid on and transfer to the oven for around 30-40 minutes, until the chicken is falling apart.
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