Tajine

I tried my hand at making a chicken tajine yesterday afternoon. (The picture isn't my dish. It is an example from the link.) It was my second attempt, and I think it turned out better yesterday than it did the first time I tried it. The dish is named after the pot that it is cooked in, and like a stew what you put in it depends on your taste and what you have on hand. Tajines are served in several areas in North Africa, but I think the recipes I was working from were going for a Moroccan tajine. Many years ago my cousin David and his wife Margaret entertained us at their home in Washington, DC, and they served a wonderful dish they called Moroccan chicken with couscous. I suspect it was a tajine.

One of my first attempts at cooking outside my comfort zone was Daube of Beef Provençal, and I've made it several times now. I find it interesting that like the tajine the French dish takes its name from the daubière, which is the traditional pot it is cooked in.

Here's yesterday's stab at chicken tajine:

8-10 chicken thighs
2-4 tbs. olive oil
medium onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic
1 tsp. cumin
1 tsp. coriander (We were out.)
1 tsp. ground ginger (The recipe called for fresh ginger.)
1 tsp. paprika
4 tbs. salt
2 tbs. black pepper
2-4 cups flour
1 cup blanched almonds
1 cup pitted olives
1 cup chicken broth
1 sliced carrot
12 oz. can of apricot nectar (The recipe called for 1 cup dried apricots.)

Travel to North Africa or France and acquire tajine or daubière. Or stay at home in East Tennessee and use your Dutch oven or a big ol' stew pot. Mix flour, salt, pepper and paprika on large plate. Heat olive oil in tajine or other pot. Toss chicken in flour mixture to coat and brown on all sides. Reduce heat to medium and add onion, garlic and ginger. Cook for five minutes, and add and mix coriander and cumin in last minute. Add apricot nectar and chicken broth, increase to boil and reduce by half. Add carrot, olives and almonds and reduce to simmer. Simmer thirty to forty-five minutes. Serve over couscous. (I used leftover Spanish rice I brought home from lunch at Los Amigos.) I might add more seasonings next time.