Moroccan Chicken Tagine

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Moroccan Chicken Tagine

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Chicken tagine is a traditional Moroccan dish of chicken pieces braised with spices, garlic, onion, olives, and preserved lemons. It’s company-worthy yet easy to throw together.

moroccan chicken tagine

Chicken tagine is a traditional Moroccan dish of chicken braised with spices, garlic, onion, olives, and preserved lemons. It’s a company-worthy dish yet easy enough to throw together on a not-too-busy weeknight. The word tagine refers to the shallow clay vessel with a cone-shaped lid in which the dish is traditionally cooked, but you don’t need one to make it. I use a large cast-iron braiser; a wide Dutch oven or heavy covered skillet will work, too. This recipe, tweaked a bit from Cook’s Illustrated, does not call for preserved lemons, a specialty ingredient that can be difficult to find. Instead, lemon zest and fresh lemon juice add tart brightness to the dish. Serve the chicken on a platter or individual plates over a bed of couscous.

What you’ll need To Make Chicken Tagine

Ingredients including spices, carrot, and chicken broth.

While you can use a whole cut-up chicken for chicken tagine, my preference is to use bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs only, similar to my coq au vin recipe. The thighs provide a good amount of meat and remain tender even if slightly overcooked, and the bones and skin add depth of flavor and richness to the sauce (though the skin is removed midway through cooking). Sometimes, I pull the meat off the bone before serving — makes it easier and more appealing for the kids to eat — but serving the chicken on the bone is traditional.

How To Make Chicken Tagine

To begin, combine the spices in small bowl.

Bowl of unmixed spices.

Mix well and set aside.

Spoon in a bowl of mixed spices.

Zest the lemon. Combine 1 teaspoon of the lemon zest with 1 minced garlic clove; set aside.

Bowls of lemon zest with a microplane grater and a zested lemon.

Season both sides of chicken pieces with 2 teaspoons salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper.

Seasoned chicken on parchment paper.

Heat the oil in a large Dutch oven or heavy-bottomed pan over medium-high heat until beginning to smoke. Brown the chicken pieces skin side down in single layer until deep golden, about 5 minutes.

Seasoned chicken in a skillet.

Using tongs, flip the chicken pieces over and brown the other side, about 4 minutes more. Seasoned chicken in a skillet.

Transfer the chicken to a large plate; when cool enough to handle, peel off the skin and discard.

Tongs grabbing chicken from a skillet.

Pour off and discard all but 1 tablespoon of fat from the pan, reduce the heat to medium, and add the onion.

Onions in a skillet.

Cook, stirring occasionally, until they have browned at the edges but still retain their shape, 5 to 7 minutes (add a few tablespoons of water if the pan gets too dark).

Skillet of browned onions.

Add the remaining minced garlic and cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add the spices and flour.

Spices and flour in a skillet with browned onions.

Cook, stirring constantly, until fragrant, about 30 seconds.

Wooden spoon stirring a skillet of onions.

Stir in the broth, honey, remaining lemon zest, and 1/4 teaspoon salt, scraping the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon to loosen any browned bits.

Broth and lemon zest in a skillet with onions.

Add the chicken (with any accumulated juices) back in, reduce the heat to medium-low, cover and simmer for 10 minutes.

Chicken in a skillet with broth.

Scatter the carrots around the chicken, cover, and simmer until the chicken is cooked through and the carrots are tender-crisp, about 10 minutes more.

Carrots in a skillet with chicken.

Add the olives, garlic-zest mixture, cilantro, and 1 tablespoon of the lemon juice.

Seasonings over chicken in a skillet.

Stir to combine and adjust seasoning with salt, pepper, and more lemon juice, if desired.

Skillet of Moroccan chicken tagine.

Serve with couscous.

moroccan chicken tagine

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Moroccan Chicken Tagine

Chicken tagine is a traditional Moroccan dish of chicken pieces braised with spices, garlic, onion, olives, and preserved lemons. It’s company-worthy yet easy to throw together.

Servings: 4 to 6
Prep Time: 15 Minutes
Cook Time: 45 Minutes
Total Time: 1 Hour

Ingredients

  • 1 teaspoon paprika
  • 1 teaspoon ground cumin
  • ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
  • ½ teaspoon ground ginger
  • ½ teaspoon ground coriander
  • ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1 lemon
  • 5 cloves garlic, minced
  • 8 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs (about 4 pounds), trimmed of excess skin and fat (see note)
  • Salt and ground black pepper
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 1 large yellow onion, halved and cut into ¼-in-thick slices
  • 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
  • 1¾ cups chicken broth
  • 2 tablespoons honey
  • 2 large or 3 medium carrots, peeled and cut crosswise into ½-inch-thick coins
  • ½ cup Greek cracked green olives, pitted and halved (see note)
  • 2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro leaves

Instructions

  1. Combine the spices in a small bowl and set aside. Zest the lemon. Combine 1 teaspoon of the lemon zest with 1 minced garlic clove; set aside.
  2. Season both sides of chicken pieces with 2 teaspoons salt and ½ teaspoon pepper. Heat the oil in a large heavy-bottomed Dutch oven or pan over medium-high heat until beginning to smoke. Brown the chicken pieces skin side down in single layer until deep golden, about 5 minutes; using tongs, flip the chicken pieces over and brown the other side, about 4 minutes more. Transfer the chicken to a large plate; when cool enough to handle, peel off the skin and discard. Pour off and discard all but 1 tablespoon of fat from the pan.
  3. Reduce the heat to medium. Add the onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until they have browned at the edges but still retain their shape, 5 to 7 minutes (add a few tablespoons of water now and then if the pan gets too dark). Add the remaining minced garlic and cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add the spices and flour and cook, stirring constantly, until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Stir in the broth, honey, remaining lemon zest, and ¼ teaspoon salt, scraping the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon to loosen any browned bits. Add the chicken (with any accumulated juices) back in, reduce the heat to medium-low, cover and simmer for 10 minutes.
  4. Add the carrots, cover, and simmer until the chicken is cooked through and the carrots are tender-crisp, about 10 minutes more.
  5. Stir in the olives, reserved lemon zest-garlic mixture, cilantro, and 1 tablespoon of the lemon juice; taste the sauce and adjust seasoning with salt, pepper, and more lemon juice, if desired. Serve with couscous.
  6. Note: Don't fret too much over trimming the chicken thighs. The skin gets removed midway through the cooking process and most of the fat will cook off and get drained. I usually just take kitchen shears and quickly snip off any excess skin or fat. Cracked green olives are olives that have been ‘cracked’ or split open before curing, allowing the brine or marinade to penetrate. You can find them in your supermarket’s olive bar, or substitute any green olive that you like.
  7. Make-Ahead: After you have completed the step of cooking the carrots, the dish can be refrigerated for up to 2 days. To serve, gently warm on the stove until the chicken is heated through, then proceed to the step where the olives and remaining ingredients are added.

Pair with

Nutrition Information

Powered by Edamam

  • Serving size: 1 chicken thigh
  • Calories: 367
  • Fat: 13 g
  • Saturated fat: 3 g
  • Carbohydrates: 14 g
  • Sugar: 7 g
  • Fiber: 2 g
  • Protein: 47 g
  • Sodium: 794 mg
  • Cholesterol: 215 mg

This website is written and produced for informational purposes only. I am not a certified nutritionist and the nutritional data on this site has not been evaluated or approved by a nutritionist or the Food and Drug Administration. Nutritional information is offered as a courtesy and should not be construed as a guarantee. The data is calculated through an online nutritional calculator, Edamam.com. Although I do my best to provide accurate nutritional information, these figures should be considered estimates only. Varying factors such as product types or brands purchased, natural fluctuations in fresh produce, and the way ingredients are processed change the effective nutritional information in any given recipe. Furthermore, different online calculators provide different results depending on their own nutrition fact sources and algorithms. To obtain the most accurate nutritional information in a given recipe, you should calculate the nutritional information with the actual ingredients used in your recipe, using your preferred nutrition calculator.

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Comments

  • This is an outstanding recipe. My whole family loved it. I doubled it, but next I double it I would only add 1.5 times the chicken broth instead of doubling the liquid.

  • Any recommendations for how to double this successfully? Thanks!

    • Hi Caroline, I think you can double this without a problem. You’ll either need large enough Dutch oven or pan to hold all the ingredients or to use two separate pans. Also, you’ll need to brown the chicken pieces in batches. Hope you enjoy!

      • Hi Jenn
        If I use a whole cut up chicken is the cooking time for the chicken the same?

        Thank you and thank you for all your recipes. Love love love

        • Hi Kathy, So glad you like the recipes! I think chicken pieces should take about the same amount of time as the thighs. Hope you enjoy!

  • A very nice and delicious chicken tagine! I loved it.

  • Hi there. Loving your recipes! I’d really like to make this for a crowd. Would it work with cubes of chicken rather than thighs (I like the idea of thighs but won’t be able to fit enough in my pan). Thank you, Claire

    • Hi Claire, I think it will work with cubes of chicken so long as you use thigh meat. Hope that helps!

  • Good recipe, but where are the preserved lemon in this recipe? I was eager to use my homemade preserved lemons only to find out you call for fresh lemons.

    • Yes, traditionally the dish calls for preserved lemons. That’s not an ingredient that most people have access to so I don’t use them, but they would be good here.

  • Wonderful! I had trouble fitting my chicken in, so I ended up pouring more chicken stock in, and then put it into the oven until the sauce thickened and thighs got nice brown color. It turned out great!

  • Hello.
    I really enjoyed this recipe and wanted to thank you.
    everything is very well explained in your recipe and it helped me a lot. 👍

  • Jenn, thank you for an incredible recipe to add to my repertoire. I made this for dinner tonight following your recipe and added dried apricots. The many levels of flavor were areal taste treat and everyone raved over the presentation with the colorful carrots, cilantro and a beautiful sauce. I ordered a tagine so that I could make it next week for a party. This recipe and your beef stew with balsamic vinegar are two of our favorites. Thank you!

  • What did I do wrong, I thought this was a bit boring 🙁 I did not add olives, as I really do not like them.

    • Hi Jacque, Sorry to hear you found this a bit boring. The olives add a lot of flavor and salt to the dish so I think that’s why it kind of fell flat for you.

  • Exquisite recipe. The best tajine I’ve ever tasted, anywhere.

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