make | MOROCCO | chicken & fennel tagine

A tagine is basically a stew named after the traditional pot in which it's cooked.  The famous cone or dome shaped roof is designed to make sure all the condensation returns to the dish, to stop it from drying out.  You can make a tagine in any pot, though, and we did ours in the slow-cooker! (I know, not very traditional at all!) The traditional tagine includes lots of spices, including ginger, turmeric, cinnamon, cumin and saffron, and is served with lightly seasoned cous cous or bread.  

Our version uses a Moroccan staple - preserved lemons! You can make your own or use shop bought ones - we didn't have enough time to make our own (they take a month of marinating!) so we used the shop bought sliced preserved lemons you can also add to drinks.  They worked just fine, adding just the right amount of sour to balance out the other flavours.

This was the first time either of us had cooked with fennel!  It's delicious, and has a mildly aniseed-y flavour that complements the other flavours in this dish very well (if we do say so ourselves!)

We hope you enjoy this as much as we did!

Enjoy today
- rosinaviolets    x

Chicken & Fennel Tagine 

Feeds four people

For the spice mixture 

1 heaped teaspoon ground coriander seeds 

1 heaped teaspoon ground ginger 

1 level teaspoon cumin seeds 

salt & pepper to taste 

2 tablespoons water 

For the tagine 

500g chopped chicken breasts 

2 bulbs of fennel, topped & tailed & cut into eight wedges each.  

2 onions, chopped 

4 cloves of garlic, minced 

1 homemade preserved lemon, or 6 slices of shop bought preserved lemon (as in the picture above).  Make sure you de-seed them! 

50g chopped olives 

3 celery sticks, chopped finely 

1 carrot, chopped

1/2 yellow pepper, chopped 

500ml hot chicken stock 

half a bunch of coriander, chopped 

pinch of saffron 

For the cous cous 

225g cous cous 

300ml boiling water 

salt & pepper to taste 

chopped coriander 

• Mix the ingredients for the spice mixture in a small bowl.  Put them in a big frying pan and let them get hot.  Then add the chicken and steam fry in the spice mixture, adding a little more water if it evaporates.  

• Add the fennel to the pot with the onions, half the coriander, the celery and the garlic.  Cook for 5 minutes.  

• Add the pepper, carrot, olives and lemon to the pot.  

• Make the stock up and add a pinch of saffron to it.  Pour it into the pot.  

• Either leave the pot on the stove for 1 1/2 hours, or put it in the slow cooker for the rest of the day! Top up with a bit of water if it starts to get dry.  

• When you're ready to serve, add the boiling water to the cous cous and leave to sit for 5 minutes.  Fluff it up with a fork and serve the tagine on top of the cous cous, sprinkling the remaining coriander over the top.