Moroccan Chicken Tagine with Dates and Honey

 You may remember a while back I went to a Masterclass with Marco Pierre White and Knorr.  We all loved his idea of using something other than water to dissolve the Knorr stock pot.

    Recently I was kindly sent another Seasonal box from Knorr which included two baby chickens and given the challenge to either cook Marco Pierre White's recipe of Spatchcocked Chicken with Chipolatas and Rosemary, or come up with a recipe of my own.....
Inspired by Marco's idea with the Knorr stock pot, I used tomato juice in this 'make it up as I go along recipe'.  Even if I do say so myself, the result was something truly delicious, chicken in a lightly spiced and slightly jammy rich and thick sauce.

Chicken Tagine with Olives and Preserved Lemons

Easy to make recipe and the result, melt in your mouth chicken flavoured with amazing spices and enough delicious sauce that's perfect for dipping in some nice flat bread. 

   Of course you don't have to have a Tagine to make this, you can just use a lidded casserole dish. Preserved lemons are available in jars in any good supermarket as is rose harissa paste.  So with that said you now have no reason for not giving this a go. 

If you really don't like olives just leave them out - simples!

You can use chicken breasts but they will dry out during the longish cooking time.  The reason I cooked this for almost 2 hours is because it allows the flavours to really get into the chicken and the sauce to become   

Kefta Mkaouara - Spicy Egg, Meatball and Tomato Tagine

Rick Stein's 'Mediterranean Escapes' cookbook has been out a good while now but in my opinion it's one of the best books I own. 

Even though I've made this time and time again, we still love it.
Of course you don't have to have a Tagine to make this, I didn't use mine as it's a bit on the big side, so I just used a shallow oven proof baking dish.

Nicely Spiced Chicken Tagine with Apricots and Preserved Lemons

A nicely spiced, easy to make, very tasty Moroccan chicken dish.  Just the right amount of sweetness and great for a dinner party.
I think a Tagine looks impressive taken straight to the table and dinner served from the Tagine.

Don't you just love the combination of fruit and nuts used in Moroccan cooking?

 So - here's my much titivated 'made up as I went along' recipe that turned out very nice indeed!

Roasted Aubergine and Butternut Tagine

I thought for a change I'd make an all vegetable Tagine of nice things.  Lovely spices mixed with nicely roasted butternut and aubergine.  I added a bit of this and a bit of that till it tasted good!

Although we're both meat eaters we didn't miss the absence of meat or chicken at all.

Chicken Tagine with Preserved Lemons and Giant Couscous

 You won't find this recipe anywhere else as it's yet another Jan special!

A nice and spicy Chicken Tagine with Preserved Lemons, Apricots and Giant Couscous.  All cooked in the same pot and so very easy to do. 

 You can make this as spicy as you fancy - just add more or less Rose Harissa.

By the way, the very controlled portion size you see in the picture, was, just for the picture.......as you know we are far too greedy to only eat this amount!

Chicken and Apricot Tagine with Preserved Lemons

This is supposed to be along the lines of the M&S 'Cook' range, 'Moroccan style chicken tagine with giant Couscous'. However, I had nothing to go by - no packaging to check what they put in and so this is from memory.  
Another problem, I had no giant couscous!   

So I made it up as I went along and it turned out to be delicious.  I served it with ordinary couscous.  With that said I will be making it again.

It's best to buy your preserved lemons Belazu is best and they are available in any any good supermarket such as Waitrose, Sainsbury's or Tesco.  
You can make your own preserved lemons like I did a while back - see here.  
However, the lemons we get over here are large and so they have to be cut into wedges to fit in the jar.

Chicken with Ras el Hanout, Sultanas and Honey

I based this on a recipe by Valentine Warner from his TV programme 'What to Eat Now' he used partridges, which I didn't fancy, so I used chicken instead. It's a shame as my end picture doesn't do this dish justice so I decided not to publish it!  You will need some nice fresh crusty bread to mop up all the lovely juices.

Ready for the Tagine lid to go and and to pop into the oven:

Click here if you want to make your own ghee.

You will need:

4 chicken breast fillets - skin on
8 teaspoons of ras el hanout
2 handfuls golden sultanas
100ml of water
3 red onions - finely chopped
3 fat cloves of garlic - finely chopped
80g ghee
2 tablespoons of clear runny honey
sea salt
2 free-range eggs

How to do it:

Put the chicken on a plate and sprinkle with the Ras el Hanout. Rub the spice all over so they are well coated on both sides. Cover and put to one side.

Preheat the oven to 220C/425F/Gas 7

Place the onions and garlic into a Tagine or lidded casserole.
Add half of the ghee in small bits around the onions, then arrange the chicken fillets on top of the onion and garlic. Now sprinkle over the sultanas.
Dollop the remaining ghee onto the fillets and then drizzle over the honey.

Season with salt, then put the lid on the Tagine and cook in the oven for 20 minutes. After this time, you can have a look and baste with the juices.

Now is a good time to put on your boiled eggs. Boil in water for about 10 minutes. Then run under cold water for a good few minutes (this will stop a grey line appearing around the yolk).

Now turn down the oven temperature to 180C/360F/Gas 4 and cook for another 30 minutes.

After about 50 minutes of cooking, check to make sure the chicken is cooked through. The juices should run clear. If not cook for another 5-10 minutes, or until cooked through.

Remove the Tagine or casserole from the oven and add the hard-boiled egg halves. Cover and leave to stand for ten minutes.

Serve with the halved boiled eggs and the lovely sweet, spicy onion sauce and of course, some nice fresh crusty bread.

I seem to have bought a Tagine!

I'm starting this food blog that probably only my mum will ever look at - but hey ho here I go:  I recently bought Rick Stein's cookery book 'Mediterranean Escapes'.

It's filled with the yummiest recipes from the Med which of course includes Morocco. Well as you can imagine, I just had to have a Tagine!

I looked on the net for ages trying to decide the best one to buy. In the end I thought this one was the best. It's made by 'Emile Henry' and had the best customer reviews.

The first recipe I tried was, of course from my newly purchased Rick Stein book.

I made Spicy Egg, Meatball and Tomato Tagine (Kefta Mkaouara) which I will do a post about soon.