the easiest chicken tagine recipe ever

"Tagine." Just sounds complicated. Trust me, it's not. And you don't even need to buy a fancy ceramic tagine (hence the name of the dish) just to make it. This Moroccan dish is delightful, can feed an army, and is super easy to make, thanks to this recipe I learned from "What's Gaby Cooking" - one of my favorite food blogs of all time. Follow her on Instagram for daily cooking inspo!

I dare you to add this recipe to your weekly mix. It's definitely a more exciting and flavorful twist to the standard weeknight chicken dinner. Better yet - it's healthy!

Below I share a slight modification to the recipe based on how I liked making this. Traditional tagine calls for preserved lemons - something I haven't yet tried making, but plan to!

Any other suggestions? Share in comments. :)

Ingredients:

• 6 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 2 teaspoons red pepper
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon turmeric
• 1/4 teaspoon saffron threads, crushed
• 6 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs
• olive oil
• 2 medium yellow onions, thinly sliced
• liberal amounts of cinnamon
• 3 pinches of sugar
• green castelvetrano olives, pitted and smashed
• 1 lemon's worth of skin peels (small, thin)
• 1/2 lemon juice
• 1-2 cups chicken stock
• 1 tbsp parsley
• Salt and pepper

Directions:

Mix the seasoning + garlic, then rub the chicken, cover, and refrigerate for 3-4 hours (to be honest, sometimes I cook it 1 hour later). There should be plenty of browned bits (otherwise known as "fond") on the skillet surface - keep it there! It will add flavor to the dish later. 

Heat oil, then brown chicken in the skillet and remove for now. Add onions, cinnamon, and sugar to caramelize. Once the onions are a nice brown and translucent color, add the chicken back in, with chicken broth, lemon juice, lemon peel + olives. Crack black pepper on top, add the lid, and let simmer for 30 minutes. 

You can serve immediately with rice, quinoa, couscous, or roasted potatoes, to name a few ideas.