Chicken Tagine with Chickpeas
A slow-cooked aromatic chicken dish, full of flavour, perfect for cooler weather.
Servings: 6 people
Ingredients
- 6 chicken thigh fillets, bone in, skin on
- 1 brown onion, peeled & chopped
- 2 carrots, thickly sliced
- 2 parsnips, thickly sliced
- 1 425 g tin chickpeas, drained and rinsed
- 6 cloves garlic, peeled and grated
- 1 tbsp fresh ginger, peeled and grated
- 1 tbsp fresh tumeric, peeled and grated
- 2 cinnamon sticks
- 2 tbsp ras el hanout
- 4 tbsp olive oil
- 2 1/2 cups chicken stock
- 1 cup Medjool dates, seeds removed
- 1/4 cup honey
- coriander leaves, to garnish
- 1 1/2 cups couscous
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 180°C (160° C fan-forced).
- Sprinkle a little sea salt on each chicken thigh and then coat with the ras el hanout.
- Heat 2 tbsp of the olive oil in the casserole dish. Add the chicken thighs. If your dish isn't big enough to add them all at once, cook them in batches. Cook them until they're brown all over, remove from the dish and drain on baking paper.
- There should still be some oil (and some juices from the chicken) in the bottom of the dish. If there's not enough, add the remaining oil, then the chopped onions, garlic, ginger and tumeric. Cook until fragrant, then add the chopped carrots and parsnips and the drained chickpeas. Stir everything together.
- Add the cinnamon sticks, stock and water, then place the browned chicken thighs on top.
- Bring it to a boil, then put the lid on the casserole dish, and transfer it to the oven.
- Cook in the oven for 1 1/2 hours. By this time, the meat will be very tender.
- Remove from the oven, stir in the honey and the pitted dates and garnish with coriander leaves.
- Serve with couscous (prepared according to the packet instructions), rice or warmed pita bread.
Notes
This dish works beautifully with goat or lamb shanks. In this case, cook the shanks at 160° C for 2 hours. The tagine will keep in the fridge for up to three days. It is suitable to freeze.
Ras el hanout is available is most supermarkets.