Simple 1-Pan Chicken Tagine Recipe

Tagine is both a Moroccan dish and a cooking vessel, as the stew takes its name from the cone-shaped clay pot in which it is traditionally cooked. No need for the latter kind of tagine to make our Moroccan-inspired chicken dish, though, as recipe developer Jessica Case cooks hers in a standard Dutch oven and calls the results "a unique and delicious meal."

One especially flavorful ingredient that Case likes to use in this recipe is preserved lemons, something she says "makes this recipe unique because it gives it a nice tart, powerful taste that blends so well with the other ingredients." She says that she prepared her lemons by juicing them (you'll need about 2 tablespoons of this juice), then removing the pulp and cutting the rind into strips. If you don't get enough juice from squeezing the preserved lemons, she suggests using the liquid from the jar. You can also substitute fresh lemon juice and zest if you prefer, as she assures us that these, too, will "add the tartness and brightness to the dish."

While this tagine recipe may be a fairly simple one, as tagines go, it still requires a number of ingredients, 18 in all. The tagine itself is made of chicken thighs, carrots, and onions, while garlic, ginger, paprika, cumin, turmeric, cinnamon, coriander, salt, pepper, honey, and preserved lemons lend the dish an intriguingly complex flavor that blends sweet, spicy, and sour notes. You'll also need olive oil and chicken stock for cooking, while parsley and green olives (whole or sliced, as long as they are without pits) add a decorative bit of greenery.

Mix half of the chopped garlic with the ginger, paprika, cumin, turmeric, cinnamon, and coriander. Rub the chicken with the seasonings, cover it, and refrigerate it for 3 hours.

When the chicken has finished marinating, salt and pepper it on both sides. Heat up some oil over medium-high, then put the chicken pieces in the pan with their skin sides facing down. Cook them for 5 minutes, then turn them over and give them another 5 minutes of cooking time before taking them out of the pan.

Pour the rest of the oil into the pan and use it to fry the onions for 5 minutes. When they start to look a bit brown around the edges, add the rest of the garlic and cook it for 30 seconds. Pour ½ cup stock into the pan and stir in the honey, as well. Use this liquid to deglaze the pan.

Stir the carrots into the vegetables, then arrange the browned chicken pieces on top. Put the lemon rind and olives on top of the chicken, then pour the rest of the stock into the pan. Put a lid (or piece of foil) on it, turn the heat down to medium-low, then let everything simmer for 15 minutes.

When the tagine is cooked, stir in the lemon juice and parsley. Taste it, then add as much (or little) salt and pepper as you feel it might need. Case advises eating the tagine warm and suggests that either couscous or rice would make a good accompaniment. She also says leftovers can be refrigerated for 4 days, or you can freeze the dish if you won't be finishing it within that time frame.