Chicken Tagine
Living in Valencia, Spain, has many advantages to the culinary aficionados. There is a multitude of cultures, religions and nationalities abundant in the towns and villages all over Spain. All of these groups have their own style of cuisine. We have a group of friends from Morocco, Turkey, Rumania, Columbia, Cuba, Argentina – and of course, Spain, which seems to have developed its own style of cuisine from a combination of all the different cultures that make up the population.
Some time ago, we had a period where each Sunday for six weeks, all our different friends cooked a Sunday lunch from their own country to share with the group of friends. Some were excellent (the Argentinean asada, prepared by Daniel Alberto Pons – a real Argentinean chef), some were good, and some were not-so-good. We experienced everything from the exotic to pure peasant food.
In particular, we liked the Moroccan style of cooking. Our Moroccan friends move between Valencia and their home in Morocco, where they actually live in a tent on the side of a mountain. They have no electricity and running water – but their food is excellent especially the tagine.
We would like to reproduce the recipes for some of the dishes they taught us. The tagines, desserts and rice dishes that have influenced so many Spanish dishes, and which are so popular with the Spanish people.
We enjoyed their Chicken Tagine so much, we asked for the recipe and it was given freely and willingly. We in turn, would like to share it with you.
Chicken Tagine for 4. You will need one Tagine for each group of four people.
2 tablespoons of olive oil
4 large chicken breasts
2 finely chopped onions
2 sticks of celery, finely chopped
1 clove of garlic, crushed
150ml chicken stock
Large pinch of saffron
50g Almonds
Freshly ground pepper
Salt
Roughly chopped coriander leaves, to garnish.
Heat the oil in a heavy pan and add the chicken so that it browns evenly. Remove from the pan and set aside on kitchen paper to drain.
Add the onions, celery, carrots and garlic to the pan and cook gently for 5 or 6 minutes until lightly coloured but not cooked through. Add the saffron and chicken stock to the pan then the almonds and salt and pepper and bring to the boil.
Add the chicken breasts to the Tagine and add all the other ingredients from the pan. Add enough water to just cover the ingredients. Heat to simmering (you can add a handful of dried apricots, dates or prunes at this stage if you want to) then place the top of the tagine on the base and seal with flour and water paste and cook very slowly for about 30-40 minutes until the chicken juices run clear when pierced with a skewer.
Remove the chicken to a warmed serving plate, cover and keep warm. Boil the cooking liquid and reduce until thickened or, if preferred, you can serve direct from the tagine where guests can help themselves.
Our friends also gave us a selection of Tagine recipes including a fabulous Lamb, shallot and date tagine. But we will keep that one for another article – or even a series of articles.
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