Gwen's Recipes- Chicken Tagine with Lemony Couscous

We are lucky enough to live a stones throw from Morocco and recently visited Tangiers and Fez for a long weekend.  The Moroccans are incredibly hospitable and warm people and as well as enjoying the wide variety of artisan crafts available in Fez we also indulged in lots of the traditional food!  We picked up a traditional conical tagine dish for less than a fiver whilst we were out there, and came back with dozens of spices from a spice shop in Tangiers. You may be able to find premixed tagine spice, like the one we brought home, in a large supermarket or ethnic food shop but if not you can make it yourself.  Tagine is the quintessential Moroccan dish, warming and comforting in winter and yet light enough to enjoy in summer. Cooking the chicken in a lidded container steams it through giving it a wonderful tender texture. It's not difficult to make, but it does require an hour to an hour and a half in the oven so make this when you have time to curl up in the kitchen and enjoy the delicious aromas coming from the oven!

Serves 2

You will need a tagine dish, or a lidded casserole.

Ingredients:

For the tagine:

Olive oil- to fry
1 onion, finely chopped
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
3 or 4 garlic cloves
3 tbsp tagine spice OR:

2 tsp ginger
2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
Generous pinch of dried chilli flakes

1 tbsp tomato puree
300ml chicken stock
2 tbsp orange juice
100g dried fruit- apricots, prunes (pitted) raisins, etc.
4 skinless chicken legs or thighs
Salt and pepper (to taste)

Fresh coriander (optional)

For the couscous:

200g couscous
Pinch of saffron
6 cardamom pods
2 handfuls of frozen peas
Juice of one lemon

1. Preheat the oven to 180 C.
2. To make the tagine, fry the onion with the vinegar over a low heat until they start to caramelise.  
3. Add the spices and garlic and fry until they smell fragrant.
4. Add the chicken 
5. Add the tomato puree and chicken stock and bring to the boil.
6. Add the orange juice, dried fruit and salt and pepper if using and simmer for 10 minutes.
7. Transfer to the casserole or tagine, place in the oven and cook for 1-1.30 hours.
8. To make the couscous, place the saffron, cardamom pods and water in a lidded saucepan.  You should use about double the amount of water by volume as couscous, so if the couscous fills one mug, you should use two mugs of water.
9. Bring the water to the boil.
10. Add the peas and bring the water back to the boil.
11. Add the couscous, put the lid on the pan, and remove the pan from the heat.
12. Leave the pan for 10 minutes.  Do not remove the lid during this time.
13. Add the lemon juice and use a fork to mix in the lemon juice and fluff up the couscous.
14. You can garnish the dish with fresh coriander.  I added a plate of sliced tomatoes with salt and oregano and we helped ourselves to those.