I’ve been fortunate to travel to many parts of the world but when I get asked about countries that are on my dream list, Morocco pops up every so often. The food has always been enticing to me and unlike so many other places I’ve traveled, I know very little about it but remain intrigued. I imagine the spice markets alone would be an adventure. To represent this country, I decided to make a very traditional dish but without the special equipment. I realize this is probably sacrilege to make a tagine without an actual tagine, but one can only have so many pieces of equipment in one kitchen.

While many of the dishes from this country are heavy on meat, particularly lamb, I found a recipe for a chicken tagine that hit more of the flavor notes I was looking for. I’m a sucker for anything with a bunch of lemon and this definitely delivered. While tagines are traditionally made with preserved lemons, I used lemon juice and zest as outlined in this recipe which made better use of what I already had available in my kitchen (though I am fortunate and preserved lemons aren’t too hard to come by in D.C. area grocery stores). In addition to the lemon, this was flavored with a wonderful spice blend, onions, and green olives. I appreciated the step in the recipe where it had you cook the chicken thighs skin on to brown them for a bit, but then the skin came off for the final cooking time. It felt a bit lighter this way but the flavor and moisture had already soaked in which was an added bonus. I served this with some sauteed squash and couscous.

Recipe I used: https://www.onceuponachef.com/recipes/moroccan-chicken-tagine.html

Overall Level of Effort: 2

Skill Level: Beginner

Would Make it Again? Yes

Additional Notes: No notes! haha This was a great weeknight meal and if you want to get the flavors of a tagine with a little less work, this is a great recipe.