Chicken Tagine With Green Herb Couscous

Chicken Tagine With Green Herb Couscous
4.4 from 9 ratings
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Something a little different. This dish flies in the face of tagine wisdom, as it is quick to make, rather than a long, slow braise, where everything collapses into an intense sauce. The result is light, with fresh, clean flavours, and it looks a treat served with the green-flecked couscous. — Greg and Lucy Malouf, authors of Moorish
Servings
4
servings
Ingredients
  • 2 pound 10 ounces free-range chicken pieces on the bone, skin removed
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon sweet paprika
  • 3 1/2 ounce plain (all-purpose) flour
  • 1/4 cup olive oil
  • 1 1/2 ounce currants
  • 2 tablespoon sherry
  • 2 tablespoon olive oil
  • 2 large onions, finely diced
  • 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
  • 1 leek, white part only, finely diced
  • 3 small bulbs fennel
  • 1 teaspoon white pepper
  • 1 teaspoon ground ginger
  • 1 teaspoon ras al hanout
  • 15 strands saffron, roasted and crushed
  • a drizzle of honey
  • 2 tomatoes, roughly chopped
  • 3 green chiles, halved, seeded, and scraped
  • 14 ounce waxy potatoes, peeled and cut into 2-centimeter (3/4-inch) dice
  • 2 cup chicken or vegetable stock
  • juice of 1 lemon
  • a handful of parsley leaves
  • 1 1/3 cup couscous
  • 2 tablespoon olive oil
  • 1/4 cup parsley leaves, finely chopped
  • 1/4 cup coriander (cilantro) leaves, finely chopped
  • a knob of unsalted butter
Directions
  1. Season the chicken pieces with the salt.
  2. Mix the paprika with the flour and dust the chicken.
  3. Heat the olive oil in a large heavy-based pan, add the chicken pieces and sauté slowly until they are golden all over.
  4. Remove the chicken from the pan and keep warm.
  5. To make the sauce, first soak the currants in the sherry for 10–15 minutes.
  6. Heat the olive oil in a pan and sauté the onions, garlic, leek, and fennel for 5 minutes, or until soft and translucent.
  7. Add the pepper, spices and honey and stir well.
  8. Add the tomatoes, green chiles, and potatoes to the pan and pour on the stock.
  9. Bring to the boil, then lower the heat and simmer uncovered for about 15 minutes, or until the potatoes are just tender.
  10. Drain the currants and add them to the pan with the chicken.
  11. Cook for a further 5 minutes, or until the chicken is just done. Stir in the lemon juice and season with extra salt if necessary.
  12. Prepare the couscous according to the method on the package.
  13. Keep warm until ready to serve, then stir through the finely chopped herbs and the butter.
  14. To serve, pile the couscous into a large, shallow serving dish.
  15. If you can, coax it into a tagine-shaped mound.
  16. Arrange the chicken pieces around the central pile of couscous, then pour the sauce all around and scatter on the parsley.
  17. Recipe excerpted with permission from Moorish: Flavours from Mecca to Marrakech by Greg and Lucy Malouf (Hardie Grant Books, 2014)
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