It’s nice if you have either a clay or steel bottomed tagine, but it isn’t absolutely necessary. You could make this dish in a heavy, enameled Le Creuset or Staub or similar pot just as easily. First heat up some olive oil and butter and add some chopped onions, ginger, chopped chilies and fresh rosemary and saute for a minute or two.
Then add 8 chicken thighs and brown on both sides. Actually, I found the browning a bit difficult with the onions there, so I would suggest you brown the chicken first, remove it, then start with the onions and add the browned chicken back in after that.
Add a handful of apricots, half a handful of golden raisins if you have them, two tablespoons of good honey, a cinnamon stick and a small can of chopped plum tomatoes and a little water if necessary to have sufficient liquid in the pan. Cover and let this cook for some 25 minutes. Check it and taste it and add salt and pepper to taste.
Cook another 10-15 minutes until the sauce has thickened and add some fresh basil leaves if you have them (we didn’t). The chicken is moist, a little sweet from the apricots, raisins and honey, but balanced out by the acidity of the tomatoes. Really simple to make, excellent with couscous or perhaps even some brown or red rice.
Original recipe for “Spicy Chicken Tagine with Apricots, Rosemary & Ginger” from the cookbook “Tagine” by Ghille Basan.
13 Responses
Is there a place in Manila where I can buy a tagine? Been looking all over for one ever since I saw a culinary documentary on Morocco.
Mel if you are in china? You can try ikea. They do have it here in Singapore ikea.
I’ll try this one. My kids will probably like this with couscous.
Mel, there was a vendor at the Whitespace monthly market that had tagines, or you can get one like in the photos above that is a Le Creuset and came from Bacchus Epicerie.
You can get tagines at Crescent Moon in Antipolo you can try calling them (630-5854 )if they are still available , i got some last year.
I saw tagines being sold at Gourdo’s Living Well.
Thanks so much for the recommendations. :) I’m actually here in Manila. It’s weird that when I posted it said China.
oh your provider must be using china IP address.
A fitting sign off recipe from MM. Just made it today and it is economical, easy and absolutely delicious!
i never liked sweet ulams :s but i have learned to eat sweet and sour, so maybe this will just take some getting used to :) i want to try cooking it with just raisins though, since they’re more on hand, but will use the golden ones! :)
Clarrisa it’s not noticeably sweet but has rich ‘warm’ flavour. If you can get hold of some apricots (if you are in this part of the world a small box, for instance, cost about 80 pesos in Landmark, Makati – admittedly they may be harder to find out of Manila) I really would add them as they are pretty integral and kind of make the whole dish complete.
This was super yummy! Used Epicurious’ recipe and it was really good. Will make it again next time.
Was able to purchase a Le Creuset pot from Williams Sonoma and cook this dish last weekend. Ended up putting alot of glazed apricots which made it quite sweet but hubby still liked it.
Will try making this again!
Thanks for the recipe!