I Tried Recreating the Best Moroccan Dish I’ve Ever Eaten

I ate this lamb tajine at a Moroccan restaurant in Chicago and it stayed with me.
Now that I’m back in Morocco, I’m trying to recreate it — not as an expert, but as a student of the craft.

Moroccan food has layers you don’t understand until you try to cook it yourself.

This lamb shank tajine with peas is inspired by a dish I ate in Chicago — one that felt deeply Moroccan — and this video is my attempt to understand why it worked so well.

I’m not a chef, and I’m definitely still learning. This isn’t a recipe, but a journey into Moroccan cooking, patience, and flavor.

If you’ve ever tried to recreate a dish that meant something to you, you’ll understand this video.

Let me know in the comments if you’ve ever chased a food memory like this.

I had this lamb tajine at a Moroccan restaurant in Chicago and it was perfect. So now I’m back in Morocco trying to recreate it. Not as an expert, but as someone still learning the craft. >> Try it. >> No. >> No. Oh no. I’m not a professional, just a guy who likes to eat. This is a gigot de lamb. I don’t know if it’s neck, shoulder, leg, but it looks good. I saw it at the shop. I said today we do tajine. Now, I went back and checked the video from Shokran. Watch that if you haven’t. It’s great. And it had artichokes in it. Artichokes are marinated at the shop. So, I got these heart of palm, an ingredient I never saw before I was in Morocco. We have our mahans, preserved lemons, some peas, and we’re cooking it over some fire today or charcoal. Now, I’m always in this dilemma. What do I do for Oh, tajine’s dirty. Not not good. Wash that. First things first. All right. Remind me to fire my dishwasher. I got my freshly cleaned tajine. Put it on the top. I’m going to let that get all the liquid out of there. All the water. Now, you guys gave me a lot of tips about what the language. I forgot it all for the meat versus the beef versus the lamb. I forgot it all. I’m sorry, but this is lamb. Uh, forgot all my dares words. Sorry. I’m going to need a second repetition of this. Salt at will. Meat loves salt. Salt loves meat. There we go. Some pepper. And check out this tajine. Already starting to steam. Pepper. Rub that on there. Ginger skins. I believe someone said after all these years in Morocco, you still don’t uh speak duria. But at least I speak food. Terisha cumin is cumin. Cumin is cumin. Just a little bit. The tajine’s looking dry already. I could add the olive oil soon. Tumeric. It’s in a bag. The bag is tied. Yeah. Turmeric, black pepper, ginger, and cumin. All right, that’s looking quite marinated. Let’s get some oil in this tajine. I’ve seen the short where we’re comparing this to the souk oil. Let’s see what it’s like in a tajine today. One, two, three. Lot of oil today. Let that get nice and hot. Some people said use vegetable oil cuz you’re going to cook all the flavor out of the olive oil anyways. But yeah, it’s healthier, I’m sure. Like this little test. Not quite yet. See? Looking hot. Oh yeah, Blue Shirt left a comment on the last video. He said, “Uh, the man needs to work on his knife skills. I think I need to work on getting a new knife, more importantly. These are the ones that came with the kitchen.” And I’m just, uh, happy to have a knife. You know, sometimes you don’t need anything fancy. You don’t need to go to the Japanese knife store and spend €100 on a knife. But I guess if you want to be a professional chef, that’s a tool of the trade. I’m not a professional, just a guy who likes to eat. And if you like to eat, cooking uh is a requirement for that because you don’t want to cook the same thing every day. We want to travel through our cooking. So today we are traveling to Marrakesh. Slicing the onion. These knife skills are for a blue shirt. If you don’t know Blue Shirt, check out our videos. When he was shell shocked in Marrakesh, when we went to a fancy Michelin star restaurant in Slovenia, he’s a special class of family member who’s visited me in both Slovenia and Morocco. So, him and one other friend earn that title and I appreciate both of you. You know who you are. And if you’re watching this and you like know me, know me like we’ve met. We’re from hometown. We we travel together. Come visit. You’re always welcome. I think that’s cut pretty thin. These even thinner. Looks like a 12b banded armadillo. I really like how that fat is bubbling up there. And out of the bone, we have stuff oozing already. This is going to be great. Let’s see how this goes. Is it stuck? Is it free? It’s free. I want to brown that up. that meaty side. But this is gonna be hot, hot, hot. Oh yeah, everything’s getting brown and the tajine’s still really hot, so I don’t want to burn the onions just yet. Little skin came off with that. That means I took it a little too early, but it’s looking good otherwise. Yeah, I could smell that I went heavy on the turmeric. That’s all right. And look, more fluid’s dripping out of there. And this may be a mistake. Check out that charcoal level. Is it too high? It looks like it’s pretty much touching the tajine. I don’t know if you can see in there. Maybe from this angle. Check out that charcoal level. The meat is already falling toward this side. Let’s get in here. Wow. It’s getting a fantastic browning on that skin side now or on that meat side. And then we’re going to get this side down. Then we’ll put the onions in. And our last side here. All right, let’s see what that brownie is looking like. Oh yeah, time to get some onions in there. Let’s get the thicker ones in there first. Maybe the starching’s too hot. This may be a disaster video. We’re going to find out. More mass should cool it down. that. This will be the bed for our lamb. Make it a nice bed. Roll the lamb back on top. So, the onion I should probably put some spices on these onions now is what you’re thinking. But I think I put so much turmeric on the lamb. I don’t need to do that here. Just make my onion bed. I’m going to turn it sideways so that I can put some more onion on top of it. And I’m glad I chopped two onions. One thing I’m a little upset about, I didn’t have garlic in the house and kind of in a time crunch today. So, had to just go with the onion. Bury it. Rest in peace. my lamb tajine. How’s that looking? Maybe I’ll add a little spice to the onion. All right. And we wait to add the rest of the ingredients until later. I’m going to cover this. Wait to add water cuz last time I did the beef tajine, it was swimming and uh I had to keep taking out sauce. So, I’m going to see what this does without the water. Hopefully, it doesn’t burn. See you later. So far so good. But that looks like little burned onion on the side. That’s okay. Better than the meat. And look at the meat just coming off that bone, coming together. Hopefully that doesn’t mean that it’s going to be tough. I’m making the judgment call by the smell of burned onions. I’m going to add a little water. Sorry, Tajin, but I don’t want you to burn too much. Half a little tea glass. Hopefully that’s enough. Let’s check in on it. Over an hour later. Ooh, look at that sauce. That looks like some yummy sauce. Now, I think I’m going to do this about 15 more minutes. Let’s check this meat. That’s kind of tender. Let’s see. Maybe it needs more. I don’t know if I’m touching bone or meat. It’s getting there. Let’s say 15 more minutes. I don’t have all day to get to eat. Let’s add some peas in here. And we let those cook for 15 minutes. Now we have some color on it. Really makes the tajine look nicer. Let those cook 15 minutes. About 10 minutes left. I’m going to add the lemon. 5 minutes left. Palm hearts. Wow, that didn’t break. That’s a strong tea glass. Very surprising. Now, one thing about the lemon, this lemon almost looks fake. Look at that. So, you just use the rind. So, I’m going to take out the the insides, the seeds. I don’t know the best way to do that. Actually, I don’t use preserved lemon too often. Only when uh Mandy, my chef friend, is here. I guess I tried it in America for one recipe. But I just use my fingers like this, I guess. Yeah. I If you don’t know how to use lemon, I guess you only use the skin to it. Correct me if I’m wrong. And I add it at the end or else it just becomes mush and then you end up eating it. And I don’t know if it’s meant to be eaten. Lemon peel. And wow, the fragrance of that. That’s a good one. Peas getting in there. Lemon on top of the meat. I don’t even know if that’s going to cook on there. I feel like last 10 minutes is maybe not enough. We’ll see what happens in there. And while I’m at it, I’m just going to add our palm hearts into the into the sauce. And these are so wet, they’re probably going to release some juices into here, too. I don’t want to hide the peas too much. So, but what am I going to do with the rest of these? I guess the baby can chew on them. All right, 10 minutes there. Let’s keep it going. All right, the charcoal is burnt down. Here is our grand reveal. Woo! We That’s looking pretty yummy, I must say. The meat is pulled away from the bone. And looking saucy. Let’s see how this tender meat is. I wish it was more tender. Maybe I just leave it. I’ll leave it and come back to it later. It’ll be like proper street touching then. These aren’t even like hot hot. We’re good. I’m going to leave this. Leave this and go to the beach and come back and it should still be hot. Who wants to try tajine? >> Here’s the big tajine reveal. >> It’s nice and warm. >> Mama, open it. >> Open it. >> Yeah. >> Huh? What’s that wife think? >> Palm hearts. >> What? >> Roomiey’s not impressed. She goes, “Is there meat in it?” Yes. always mean and tajine, but at first sight she’s she doesn’t look too impressed by it. But that’s hard to palm. They didn’t Well, artichokes were only marinated at the shop and there were 45 dirham. Should have bought some at the souk. >> What about spar? >> That’s for beef tajine. They didn’t have beef at the butcher today. >> Okay. The most important ingredient is sauce. >> Good. >> Just meat. >> Okay. >> Just soft meat. You got to take a picture first. >> Um, no picture. >> Here’s the check. Is the meat soft or not? Uh-oh. That’s not a good sign. >> I’m not good at this. >> This is kind of a fail right now. Sorry, Romy. You want soft meats? >> Uh, I don’t know. Try it. >> No. >> No. Oh, no. Tajine fail. I guess >> the sauce is good. Okay. >> She says it needs salt to the sauce. >> I don’t think so. >> Boss says so. >> Oh, that looks good. Let me see that. That looks very good. >> Mhm. >> Yeah, the bottom looks Look, the bottom is done. >> The bottom is done. I mean, top is done too. >> Cut. >> Yeah, this part that was on the bottom that was boiling in the sauce. It’s really good and juicy and soft. So, Yeah. >> I mean, that looks great. >> Yeah, it’s really good. >> And you like the heart of palm, too? >> Yeah. >> And Room is liking this meat better. Is this meat better? >> Yeah. >> Let’s see. >> Good. Oh, fork for me. Thank you. Thank you. >> Now, this looks good, but I don’t think it beats shukuran in Chicago’s tajine. But I think you’re pretty good for one of my lamb tajines. Here, you can see the meat is >> pulling right off. So >> that’s a good sign pee. >> Is the duding good? >> You like it? >> Mama, the jib yummy. >> Show me. >> The real Japan. >> The real Japan. This isn’t the real Jen. >> Very yummy. >> You want more pee? >> You think Shelly heart a palm? I try harder palm >> is your hand shaking. >> Why? >> What did you say? Remy, >> I’m not eating. >> Taji needs salt. Okay, boss. And here you can see the bottom. Did the onions burn? Yeah, the onions are quite black in there, but that’s okay. That’s what’s supposed to happen. That was my attempt at a Marrakeshi lamb tajine. I think it could be improved with some saffron water in there and some salt according to this one. And I like I like the look of this caveman bone. >> What tajine do you want next room for me? >> Rainbow. >> Rainbow tajine. You keep asking for that. I don’t know what that means. So yeah, after seeing that tajine in Chicago and remembering the taste, the aroma, the flavors, mine was not even close. So don’t sugarcoat the comments. It was edible, but heart of palm is not artichoke. And I don’t know how can I do it better. You let me know. Thanks for watching. Subscribe if you haven’t. And here’s my conclusion.