My wife was craving a chicken dish this past Sunday that she recalled having prunes as one of the ingredients. I could not recall having had such a dish before so I ventured to the internet and discovered a dish called Chicken Tagine- a Moroccan dish that is made in a tagine. The tagine, pictured below, is a clay pot that is used in this region to make various stews and braised meats. I have seen these before at Williams Sonoma, but never gave it much mind, and truthfully I will likely never buy one as I feel a 7 or 8 quart Dutch oven does the trick for such preparation. I realize the risk I may be taking by dismissing the tagine as a cooking vessel, but truthfully, I just have no where to store such a vessel.
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Tagine Pot
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I found myriad recipes for Chicken Tagine on the internet. Common elements are cinnamon, almonds, prunes, and onions with variations using honey and others sugar, lemon zest, turmeric or saffron, and even tomatoes and olives.
After surveying multiple recipes I crafted my own interpretation that I found suited what I felt would be the best tasting and pleasing to the eye (we ate the dish so fast that I did not have a chance to take a picture. Next time I will photograph the final results and upload). I like the use of saffron over tumeric, as tumeric is merely for color, while saffron imparts a unique earthy quality that adds such wonderful depth of flavor and matches well with the other ingredients. The major modification that I made was the use of evaporated milk as a braising liquid instead of water. This to me made the dish taste rich without being too heavy, rather the evaporated milk balanced beautifully with all the flavors and added to the depth of flavor.
Now for the purist, this may not be how someone from Morocco would prepare this dish as they would likely make it more like a stew and include other ingredients that comes with the local knowledge of this wonderfully delicious cusine, but my version is an American take on this dish, that I promise will not disappoint. My wife and oldest daughter say it is 4 out of 4 stars and are eager for me to prepare this dish again.
Chicken Tagine (Moroccan Chicken with Honey, Almonds and Prunes)
Serves 4
Ingredients
8 chicken thighs, skin on with bone, or four leg quarters
1 large sweet onion
24 prunes, pitted (I used Sunsweet prunes that are already pitted, found with the dried fruit at your grocery store)
4 ounces of slivered almonds
¼ cup of honey
8 ounces of skim evaporated milk
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
½ tsp. saffron
1 cinnamon stick
Salt and Pepper
Instructions
1. Preheat a 7 or 8 quart Dutch oven
2. Add 1 to 2 tbsps. Olive oil
3. Salt and pepper both sides of the chicken. Add chicken thighs skin side down and brown the skin-5-7 minutes. Turn and heat for another 5 minutes, then remove chicken from the pan to a large plate.
4. While the chicken is browning, finely chop the onion, then after removing the chicken, add the onion, cinnamon, cinnamon stick, saffron, and additional salt and pepper (1/2 tsp. each), sauté for approximately 15 minutes.
5. Place chicken back into the pot skin side up
6. Add evaporated milk
7. Cover the pot and set the temperature to low and let cook for 30-40 minutes
8. Dry toast the slivered almonds in a pan till golden brown, being careful not to burn them
9. Remove chicken from pot with a slotted spoon
10. Add honey, almonds and prunes, reduce on high for approximately 10 minutes, lower heat to medium then add back the chicken, skin side down for another 10 minutes. The sauce should be fairly thick in the consistency of heavy cream and the chicken will become glazed
11. Meanwhile prepare some whole wheat couscous to serve with the dish.
12. Plate the chicken, one to two pieces, liberally pour the sauce on top of the chicken and serve with couscous and asparagus.
Wine recommendation for this dish is a Rhone Style Red such as an E. Guigal, Cotes du Rhone, which cost approximately $15.00 and is widely available.
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