Moroccan Magic in a Pot: Chicken Tagine Recipe!

When Moroccan Magic In a Pot, meets a Chicken Tagine Recipe, it’s a meal to a tenderness perfection. The dish is bathed in aromatics and spices, cooked in the mysterious tagine to a delicious final dinner that all the family will love.There’s many variations to this recipe, but no matter, it’s what you prefer and like to cook in your home that matters. Follow the basic recipe if you must and change it to your preferred palate. This recipe is for me and I love it. An exquisite culinary experience that I personally like to serve with a tangy tabouleh salad, and plenty of bread to soak up all that flavour.
Bon Appetite.

If you liked this video why not consider watching one of my other delicious recipeson YouTube. Follow the links below. Enjoy. This is a very new channel so I can only improve from here.

https://youtu.be/bDN3qmap0I8

THE RECIPE
Some Olive oil,
4 small pieces of chicken breast skin off,
1 medium brown onion finely sliced,
5 cm of peeled and grated ginger,
1/2 tsp of saffron powder mixed with 1 cup of water,
1 tsp of ground tumeric,
1 tsp of ground cummin,
2 tsp of mild paprika,
2 cloves of garlic crushed,
1 stick of cinnamon,
300 ml of Chicken Stock.
1 small red chilli cut in half with seeds ( if you don’t want it too hot remove the seeds),
2 ripe tomatoes grated, or a 400gm can of good quality tomatoes grated.
2 tbls of honey
2 preserved lemon skin sliced finely, the flesh chopped and used in the marinate,
2 tbls of finely chopped mint,
salt and pepper to your tatste,
A packet of couscous prepared as per instructions.

To marinate the chicken firstly score the chicken, do not cut through. Place the chicken in a stainless steel bowl. Add the marinate, which is made from the inner preserved lemons, finely chopped seeds removed, add some salt and pepper, the cummin, ginger, paprika, olive oil, and saffron liquid. Whisk the marinate and pour over the chicken. Massage well into the chicken. Refrigerate for 5 hours,
Add some olive oil to the tagine base and heat it up. When hot add and brown both sides of the chicken well. Once done transfer the chicken to a plate. Next add the onions and sautee over low heat and when they begin to lightly brown add the garlic. Mix thoroughly. Keep cooking over low heat for at least 1 minute,and next add all the spices for another 1 minute. keep mixing. Now add the chicken back in with the chilli and the marinating juices, the tomato and chicken stock, bring to a low boil. Cover with the tagine lid turn heat to the lowest setting and cook for at least 1 hour.
Now taste the seasoning and correct it, Add the lemon slices, cover the tagine and cook again over low heat for another 15 minutes. To thicken the juices, next uncover the tagine raise heat to low-medium and cook for 5 minutes, ensuring you keep an eye on it. When the sauce is glazed over it’s done.
Serve with freshly made couscous.

QUIRKY FACTS

The bottom of the tagine is a thick based design to absorb and keep the heat for cooking. The lid is ceramic that is glazed to seal the pottery thus preventing loss of moisture, and capturing the cooking steam and returning it to the base. The usage of water during the cooking is minimal.
Some Historians believe that the tagine originated from the berber tribes of North Africa. However, there’s some written evidence that could point to the Abbasid Caliphate from about the 1500’s. Either way the tagine has endured because it works. One thing for sure the Romans did not invent it, or maybe it’s not that certain, even though there’s some historians that will argue that they did invent it.

Hello, Alex here from Everyday Food Cooked Every 
Day. Today I’ll be cooking a Moroccan classic, a chicken tajine that showcases Moroccan spices and 
traditional flavors. If you don’t have a tjine, a deep frying pan with the lid will suffice. 
Otherwise, one petite and um let’s go. The first thing we’re going to do is I’ve got three breast 
fillets here. You can use um chicken thighs, chicken legs. I prefer the breast. I’ve taken the 
skin off and I’m going to slice them in half. So, I’ll get six pins out of it. And the first thing 
I need to do is marinate these chickens. It um we will require once I show you how to do a 
marinade, it will require at least a minimum of 5 hours in the fridge. And um after that, we’ll 
come back when it’s all marinated and we’ll start the cooking process. I’m preparing the u 
the marinade for the chicken and I’m going to do it in this in this bowl here. And in here 
I’ve got ginger that’s been grated, paprika, cumin seed, and a little bit of olive oil. 
To that I’m going to add a cup of warm water with some saffron seeds in stems in them. 
And then I’m going to slice the lemons. And these are the preserved lemons. And I’m going 
to use the skin for the cooking process. And I’m going to use the inner part of the lemon 
in the marinade. The lemon peels have been sliced. The saffron water is ready to put into 
the marinade, which I’ll do I’ll do right now. And the inner part of the lemon 
has been d has been finally diced, chopped up, I should say. And that’s 
going to go in the marinade as well. Okay, the next thing we do is dice the chicken. 
Not dice the chicken, that’s totally wrong. I’m going to score the chicken and put it in 
the marinade and then it’s going to go in the fridge for at least anything well I like to 
leave it in there for about four to five hours and and after that I’ll show you that and then 
we’ll go we’ll come back and continue cooking. And this is the last bit of the chicken. So, 
I’m just going to score it not right through. And it’s going to go in the marinade like this. Move this out of the way. There we go. And um just make sure it’s fully 
coated in the marinade. all the chicken pieces and let this now sit there for few hours in 
the fridge. I’m going to cover it up cover it up with some um some wrap and in a few hours 
time we’ll come back to it and we’ll start the cooking process. But then all the flavors have 
been absorbed and that’s this is what’s this is the what’s going to make this meal amazing. 
Okay. Okay. It’s been I’m not sure a couple of hours at least, but we still got a little bit of 
way to go. Um I’ve just um brought this out so I can show you. This is the tangen. It’s made 
out of metal metal bal a thick metal base and sits on the heating element. And the top is a 
ceramic um top that’s designed to capture all the liquid as it evaporates. and it just sits on 
top. And basically what that does is it creates it creates um kind of an oven, a Dutch oven, 
I don’t know. I don’t know what I call it. But anyway, that’s a tine and the whole process will 
happen in here. Okay. Okay. I’m preparing some of the um vegetables now. The onions are going to 
get finely diced. The garlic is being minced. And when I’m all ready with my ingredients, I’ll get 
back to you and um we’ll start the next step. It’s been about 4 hours, so another hour from now, 
we’ll we’ll start the cooking process. Okay, we’re just about there. I’ve got my chili 
chopped. My garlic has been crushed, cinnamon stick, sliced onions, and um my 
tomatoes. And um all I need to add now, of course, is um some of the other spices. Um 
but before I do that, I’m going to brown the chicken off. And the tine now is nice and 
hot. So I’m going to add some olive oil. And you can see how hot it is. That’s fantastic 
cuz the oil’s starting to smoke straight away. And out comes the chicken from the fridge. It’s been marinating for about 5 
hours. So, we’ll go from there. So, we want to put the chicken in and get a nice caramelization of the chicken. Oh, wow. [Music] So, we’ll cook this until we get the aroma. 
You’re missing out this. Well, anyway, I’m going to get the caramelization happening 
on the chicken and um then I’ll start the rest of the process. There we go. It’s starting to 
cook. I’m turning it around. There’s a little bit of caramelization happening. Not a lot. So, 
we need to leave them in. I’m going to turn them when when it when it start to caramelize. 
And when both sides are pretty well done, I’m going to put them take them out and then 
start with the onions and the garlic, etc. Okay, let’s have another look at this chicken. I think it might be ready to be turned 
over. Yep. So, I’ll turn them over. Now it’s cooking. What little liquids in there 
is is reducing and that’s a good thing because the caramelization process is is continuing very 
soon. Now you can see the color is starting to get a little bit brown. very soon. Now, I’m going to 
take it out and I’m going to start with the onions and um and the rest of the spices. Okay, good 
things take time. This is a beautiful good meal. And there we go. The chicken’s out of the tajine, 
nicely caramelized, and it’s almost cooked. So, now I’m going to put this aside and start with 
the onions. All right, in go in go the onions. And we’ll mix them around in this high heat to um get sort for a few minutes, couple of 
minutes. And then we’ll add the garlic. There you go. The onions have been 
caramelizing for a couple of minutes. So, we’ll just add the garlic. Two 
cloves of garlic that’s been crushed. as well and cook that for about a minute. Oh, the 
aroma of the garlic is already hit me. Okay, the onion and the garlic is sauteed. 
I’m going to put the chicken back in. And let this magic continue. [Music] I’m going to add the fiery chili. [Music] In goes the cinnamon stick. And so the cinnamon sticks in. Now these 
precious marinade juice that were left over, they’re going back in. Not getting rid of these. Make sure you mix it all nice and thoroughly. In goes the chicken stock. 
300 mil of chicken stock. And last but not least, the tomatoes. So, bring this to the boil. That’s it. It’s done. Bring it to the boil, cover it with a tine top, and leave it alone. 
Lower the heat, of course, and leave it alone for an hour. When I take that lid off, I 
can’t begin to tell you the flavor. Anyway, something I love. I enjoy a lot. Okay, let this 
come to a boil and I’ll get back to you. So, it’s now just about to the boil. Don’t forget 
we still got those beautiful lemon preserved lemon rind. That’s going to go in at the end. So, 
leave them aside. Now, this is starting to boil. So, what I’m going to do now is I’m going 
to lower the heat and put the tin lid on, lower the heat, and I’m going to leave 
it for an hour. In an hour’s time, I’ll come back and and we’ll take it 
from there. Okay. Okay. Back again. Um, when I put the spices in, I forgot to 
put the mint in. doesn’t matter cuz um the process of cooking the one now bit 
is is just started. So I put in my mint and my two tablespoons of 
really good quality honey. And that’s it. Lid goes back on and we continue. See you in about 
an hour. Okay, it’s been cooking for low heat for about an hour. And now what we’ll do is um I’ll 
take this off. I can’t wait to see it inside, I guess. Um, give it a bit of a taste to see if 
I have to adjust the seasoning. And then add the the lemon rind. And that’s it. Then finish the 
cooking process off. If you want to thicken it, um, take the lid off, cook it for 
another 10, 15 minutes until the water, the liquid reduces. If you like it the way it is, 
cuz it’s going to get served with couscous. So, you buy the packet, follow the 
instructions, very easy to make. And you serve this t this chicken tine with 
the couscous. And on the side I’ll make a lettuce. A very simple lettuce and white onion 
salad. Very very healthy meal. Love it. Full of flavor. Anyway, so let’s have a look at this. 
Um and it’s hot. Let’s have a look at this. And Can you see it? Yes, you can. Well, I 
know I keep talking about the aromomas. Um, but this is amazing. Um, let me just taste 
it to see if it needs to salt and pepper. Yep. Perfect. Doesn’t need salt. Doesn’t 
need pepper. What I will add is the lemon rind because the the lemon rind itself, 
the pickled rem lemon preserved lemons is um quite bitter. So that will add 
another dimension to this dish. So in they go. And I know in the recipe I say one 
lemon r one lemon, but I’ve used two simply because they were small. Um if if there 
were larger lemons that were pickled in there, I would have only used one. So you know, you 
adjust your your your the menu according to your uh preference. Okay, let this cook for 
another five minutes with the lid off so the lemon can lemon right now can infuse 
into the meal. Um, as the juices reduce, it it will intensify in flavor. And um, yeah, 
we’ll come back and see what it’s like. And I think we’re just about there. Um, I can’t 
help myself. This is a fresh, clean spoon, so Solo. I am going to feast on this meal 
tonight with some couscous and some lettuce and a little bit of vinegar and salt 
on it. So that’s it. While I’m at it. Yeah, that’s it. Okay, it’s been cooking for about 
five or so minutes. The liquid has reduced a little bit. I like a little bit liquid 
in my meal because I’ll mix that in with the couscous when I serve it. Um, so now for 
the final taste and to see how it’s come up. I I I fully expect that this will be 
amazing cuz the previous taste was so much better. Now I’ve added those lemon rights. Five or so minutes is enough for that 
little bit of bitterness to infuse in um um with the rest of the flavors. So let’s have 
a look. Get a bit of onion, tomato, some juice. Look, I can’t do any wrong except when I do wrong. 
Uh, all jokes aside, this is an amazing, amazing, flavorsome meal. When I can’t wait, it’s ready. 
Um, it’s ready. It’s again, I love it. Thank you for watching. Absolutely. Thank you for watching. 
If you liked my video and my video so far, please subscribe and um then um that will 
help me a lot. Obviously, goes without saying. If you like them, if you don’t like them, that’s 
fine, too. Have you enjoyed it? Have I given you an idea on what and how to cook something 
different? That’s all that matters. Enjoy your meal. Enjoy your meal with your family and your 
friends. Okay. Goodbye for now. This is Alex. Bye. [Music]