The Christmas Tagine!

Russ is a wonderful husband in many ways one of which is that he is very supportive of my hobby of cooking. He cleans up the dishes after I cook, he fans the kitchen out and stops the smoke alarm from beeping more than I am sure he ever thought he would, he tries anything I make and calls Papa John when needed, he encourages me to try new cooking techniques or ingredients, he indulges my cookbook and cooking gadget habit… For Christmas this year he surprised me by giving me a tagine and a Moroccan cookbook to go with it. The tagine is a Le Creuset and blue and so beautiful it just makes me happy looking at it (part of the reason why it is still sitting out on the stove several weeks later)! I have been pouring over the Moroccan cookbook to try and decided what to try first. Several of my top picks all included preserved lemons which I don’t have yet (more about that later), so I ended up deciding to try Chicken with Apricots and Rosemary first.

To make this dish you sauté onions, ginger, rosemary, and chiles in a little butter and olive oil until they are tender. (Tip: I use a spoon to scrap the peel off of fresh ginger. It works really well and is very quick.) Then you add cinnamon sticks and rosemary sprigs to the dish. You then take the chicken thighs and brown them in the dish. Now a tagine is not very large on the bottom and will all the ingredients already in there I had a difficult time getting the chicken to brown since there was a layer of onions under it. Next time I’ll brown the chicken in a separate pan and then add it or remove the other ingredients and set them aside then brown the chicken and finally add the other ingredients back in the tagine. Once the chicken has browned on both sides you add a can of whole tomatoes and their liquid, the apricots, and honey. Then add the top of the tagine and leave it for around 25 minutes over very low heat. Once it is finished cooking you add the basil to the top and serve.

This dish was very fragrant as it cooked and was flavorful with the combination of sweet and savory when we ate it. The chicken was very moist and worked well with all the other flavors. I served it over cous cous which soaked up the extra sauce. The apricots made the dish to me as they were so moist and tender and had a very sweet, but mature flavor. While Russ and I really enjoyed this dish I am anxious to preserve some lemons (look for my attempt to preserve them to show up on the blog soon) and try several other recipes out soon. Russ rates tonight's dish an 8.

Spicy Chicken Tagine with Apricots, Rosemary, and Ginger

Tagine by Ghillie Basan, Serves 4

2 tablespoons olive oil with a pat of butter
1 onion, finely chopped
3 sprigs of rosemary, 1 finely chopped, the other two cut in half
A 1 and ½ inch piece of fresh ginger, peeled and finely chopped
2 red chiles, seeded and finely chopped
1 – 2 cinnamon sticks
8 chicken thighs
¾ cup dried apricots
2 tablespoons clear honey
1 (14 oz) can plum tomatoes with their juice
Sea salt and freshly ground pepper
A small bunch of fresh green or purple basil leaves

Heat the oil and butter in a tagine or heavy based casserole dish. Stir in the onion, chopped rosemary, ginger and chiles and sauté until the onion begins to soften. Stir in the halved rosemary sprigs and the cinnamon sticks. Add the chicken thighs and brown them on both sides. Toss in the apricots with the honey, then stir in the plum tomatoes with their juice. (Add a little water if necessary, to ensure there is enough liquid to cover the base of the tagine and submerge the apricots.) Bring the liquid to a boil, then reduce the heat. Cover with a lid and cook gently for 35 – 40 minutes.

Season to taste with salt and pepper. Shred the larger basil leaves and leave the small ones intact. Sprinkle them over the chicken and serve the dish immediately.

My Notes: I used three large chicken thighs and left the other amounts the same.