Pamela's Gluten Free Recipes

Daily forays into the kitchen for 1 celiac, 1 vegetarian, and 2 carnivores

Morroccan Chicken Tagine

Dinner Party, Gluten Free, Poultry1 Response »

It’s time, the weather just took a turn towards fall.

Although it was a fantastic summer here ,I am ready for a change of seasons.

Where the nights thankfully are cooler,  and the mornings clear and crisp.

You know it’s time to pull out the big old Le Creuset dish and start creating.

We love long braised dishes with that savory, sweet, spicy and tangy thing going on.

And this type of dish somehow works for all of us, even veggie girl.

She will eat the sauce spooned over rice, even though the chicken was cooking in it!

I just make sure there is enough yummy stuff in the sauce for her, in this case eggplant and cannellini beans.

You will need some chicken, whatever cut you have will do. I used “pick of the chick” because we like both white and dark meat.

A red or yellow pepper, onion, garlic, eggplant, can of tomatoes, some apricots or other dried fruit even golden raisins work well, and  cannilini beans optional of course.

Get out the spices, you will need: cumin, cayenne pepper or red chili flakes, paprika, ground ginger, ground coriander, ground turmeric and fennel seed.

Also to finish the dish zest of 1 lemon, parsley and thin sliced almonds.

In  a very large pot, add few tablespoons of olive oil and heat it up.  When really hot add chicken, sprinkle with salt and pepper and brown on both sides.

Cut up eggplant into 1″ cubes, toss with olive oil and add to baking sheet.  Pop into oven for 25-30 mins at 400. Set aside.

Meanwhile chop up 1 sweet onion, 1 red or yellow pepper and 3-4 cloves of garlic.

When chicken all nicely browned all both sides remove to platter and set aside.

Add onion and peppers to pot cook approx. 5 mins until onion translucent and pepper soft.

Add garlic, cook 1 min, add all spices, give them a minute to get fragrant then add tomatoes and drained beans (if using) and chopped or whole apricots.

Return dark meat chicken to pot and immerse in sauce. Cover and simmer on low heat for 20 mins.

Add chicken breasts and continue to cook an additional 20 mins.

Add cooked eggplant and cook another 5 minutes uncovered.

Turn off heat, add lemon zest, almonds and parsley.  We served it with basmati rice and a simple green salad.

 

Morroccan Chicken Tagine
Author: 
Recipe type: Main
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 4-6
 
Ingredients
  • 1 chicken cut up
  • 6 Tbs olive oil, divided
  • 1 red or yellow pepper diced
  • 1 sweet onion diced
  • 4 garlic cloves minced
  • 1 Tbs papika
  • ½ tsp kosher salt
  • 2 tsp turmeric
  • 2 tsp ground coriander
  • 1 tsp ground fennel seed
  • 1 tsp ground black pepper
  • 2 tsp ground cumin
  • 1 tsp ground ginger
  • 1 tsp red pepper flakes (optional)
  • 2 cups canned diced tomatoes (28 ounce can)
  • 1 cup chicken stock
  • 6 chopped dried apricots
  • 1 large eggplant, cut into 1 inch cubes
  • ½ cup slivered almonds
  • ¼ cup chopped parsley
  • zest of 1 lemon or 3 Tbs lemon juice
Instructions
  1. Heat 4 Tbs olive oil in heavy large pot over medium heat.
  2. Add chicken, sprinkle with salt and pepper, brown on all sides.
  3. Remove to platter.
  4. Meanwhile place cut eggplant on sheet pan toss with remaining olive oil and salt & pepper.
  5. Cook in 400 degree oven for 25 mins, until soft and brown. When done set aside.
  6. Now add pepper and onion to pot. Cover and cook until soft (about 10 mins).
  7. Add garlic, cook 1 min.
  8. Add all spices, stirring about 20 seconds until fragrant.
  9. Now add tomatoes and chicken stock and apricots, arrange chicken (dark meat) into sauce and simmer for 20 minutes.
  10. Add breasts, if using and simmer another 15 minutes.
  11. Stir eggplant into sauce and simmer 5 minutes to reheat.
  12. Turn off heat, add lemon zest, almonds and parsley.
  13. Serve over basmati rice.

 

 

One Response

Rose
September 9th, 2011 at 8:21 am

Looks delicious! I especially like the scoop of rice; such a nice touch! Found you by way of Upper Pond, am adding you to my blogroll, so you can plan my dinners!! 🙂

Leave a Response

Rate this recipe: