Bigly Chicken Tagine
Prep
20m
Cook
55m
Total
75m
Bigly says
I want to talk about chicken tagine. TAGINE. We are doing the BIGLY chicken tagine, the greatest tagine in the history of tagine — and the history is LONG, the Moroccans have been making this for a thousand years, maybe two thousand, older than France, older than Italy, older than the wheel some historians say, the camels probably had opinions about it, the camels in Morocco are very particular about food, they come up to people and they nod, that's what I'm told, I believe them.
Now the tagine is a pot. It's a pot with a pointy hat on top. The pointy hat is not optional but also it kind of is — you can use a Dutch oven, nobody's going to arrest you, the tagine police are not real, I checked. The pointy hat does something with the steam, it goes up, it comes down, it bastes the chicken, very smart, the Moroccans figured this out before the rest of us were figuring out how to NOT BURN BREAD. We owe them. Big time.
The secret — and you'll get it free, no banner asking if you accept marketing cookies and 'similar technologies,' WHAT ARE THE SIMILAR TECHNOLOGIES, nobody knows, the lawyers wrote it, total disaster — the secret is the preserved lemon and the saffron. Two ingredients. Two. Skip them and you've made a stew, a NICE stew, but not a tagine, and not BIGLY. People will know. Your grandmother will know. The camels will know. It is what it is.
Ingredients
- 8bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs
- 1.5 tspkosher salt
- 1 tspground cumin
- 1 tspground coriander
- 1 tspsweet paprika
- 1 tspground ginger
- 1/2 tspground turmeric
- 1/2 tspground cinnamon
- a generous pinchsaffron threads(the real stuff, no substitutes, no shortcuts)
- 3 tbspolive oil
- 1large yellow onion, thinly sliced
- 5garlic cloves, minced
- 1 tbspfresh ginger, grated
- 1.5 cupschicken stock
- 1preserved lemon, rind only, thinly sliced(rinse it first to knock back the salt)
- 1 cupgreen olives (Castelvetrano or picholine), pitted
- 1/4 cupfresh cilantro, chopped
- 1/4 cupfresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped
- as neededcouscous or warm flatbread (for serving)
Steps
- 1
Crumble the saffron into 2 tbsp warm water and let steep while you prep the rest.
- 2
Pat the chicken thighs dry and season all over with the salt, cumin, coriander, paprika, ground ginger, turmeric, and cinnamon. Let sit at room temperature 15 minutes.
- 3
Heat olive oil in a tagine or heavy Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Brown the chicken thighs skin-side down 5-6 minutes until deeply golden. Flip and brown another 3 minutes. Transfer to a plate.
- 4
Reduce heat to medium. Add the sliced onion to the same pot and cook 7-8 minutes, stirring occasionally, until softened and lightly caramelized.
- 5
Stir in the garlic and fresh ginger and cook 1 minute until fragrant. Pour in the saffron water and chicken stock, scraping up any browned bits.
- 6
Return the chicken thighs to the pot, skin-side up, nestling them into the liquid (the skin should sit above the liquid line so it stays mostly crisp).
- 7
Cover, reduce heat to low, and simmer 30 minutes. The chicken should be tender and the sauce slightly reduced.
- 8
Add the preserved lemon and green olives. Simmer uncovered another 10 minutes to concentrate the sauce.
- 9
Stir half the cilantro and parsley into the sauce. Garnish the top with the remaining herbs. Serve straight from the pot with couscous or warm flatbread to mop up the sauce.
One more thing
This is the dish you make on a slow Sunday when you want the whole house to smell like a thousand-year-old kitchen in a city you've never been to. The neighbors will smell it. They'll knock. Don't answer. The tagine is for you. The tagine is for your people. The neighbors can get their own tagine. Save me a piece.
★ QUESTIONS ABOUT THIS ONE? ★
Ask Bigly about Bigly Chicken Tagine.
Substitutions, what to serve it with, why other chefs are wrong about it. He's got opinions.
★ MORE LIKE THIS ★
KEEP COOKING.
The Best Buttermilk Fried Chicken
Crackling-crisp buttermilk fried chicken with a juicy interior and a peppery, well-seasoned crust. Brined overnight, double-dredged, fried golden.
Tremendous Chicken Adobo
Filipino chicken adobo braised in soy sauce, vinegar, garlic, and bay, then seared in its own glaze until the skin is dark, lacquered, and crackling.
Huge Chicken Biryani
Layered chicken biryani with saffron rice, yogurt-marinated chicken, fried onions, and warm spices. One pot, dum-steamed, restaurant-quality at home.
Tremendous Chicken Cacciatore
Bone-in chicken thighs braised with tomatoes, mushrooms, peppers, and red wine. Deep, rustic Italian hunter's stew with fall-off-the-bone meat.