Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Chicken Tagine with Dates and Almonds



 
Why, hello :) It’s been a while, I hope you’ve been keeping well over the past year and a half?

I thought I’d dust off the keypad and update my repository of recipes by giving you one that worked well for a pot luck dinner just this week. This chicken, date and almond tagine was originally cooked for me by my friends A&E. I then nicked the recipe off them and have been cooking it for dinner parties, many of my own meals - and a pot luck dinner.

As is my way, I made a few tweaks to the original recipe which called for prunes and green olives - I didn't have either of those so substituted the prunes for dates and left out the olives - the saltiness of these would balance out the sweetness of the prunes.

And contrary to popular belief, you don't need a traditional tagine to make this - just a large pot. The preparation involves putting in the uncooked chicken (no pre-searing required, yeah!) and layering the other ingredients on top - so easy. The cooking time of an hour and a half braises the chicken to super tender and reduces down the liquid to make a rich, tasty sauce. I cooked mine in about an
hour and it still turned out well. I made couscous to go with it and jazzed it up a little by making it with chicken stock, lemon zest and a dash of parsley.

Tagine of Chicken with Dates and Almonds

Adapted from Julie Le Clerc’s book, Made in Morocco, via Milly’s Kitchen

Ingredients

6 chicken thighs, cut into good sized chunks
1 large onion,thickly sliced
2 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
1 teaspoon each ground cinnamon, ginger, cumin
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
1/2 cup dates
1/2 cup blanched almonds
1/4 cup white wine vinegar (I used apple cider vinegar which I think made it too sweet)
1 1/2 cups chicken stock
Sea salt and freshly
ground black pepper
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley

Directions

1. Place chicken portions in a medium-large pot. Scatter over remaining ingredients in the order listed, except the parsley, and season with salt and pepper.

2. Cover the pot and bring the liquid to the boil, then turn down the heat to simmer for 1½ hours, turning the chicken pieces once or twice, until the chicken tests cooked and the liquid is much reduced. The cooking can alternatively be done in an oven heated to 180°C.

3. Adjust seasoning of sauce if necessary before serving. Serve scattered with parsley.

Serves 4

1 comment:

  1. Yum! That looks and sounds nice, I'll try it in the slow cooker mum gave us. Something different to try- c likes olives and the prunes will keep us regular lol! Thx for sharing. Julia

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