Moroccan Chicken Tagine with Couscous

Last year my office had it's annual Christmas party at a delicious tapas restaurant and someone ordered the Chicken Tagine... I had no idea what it was but it sounded fantastic. It arrived in a strange triangle cone dish and I already liked it. It felt foreign and new... The strange shaped dish is called a tagine and it's a casserole dish made for slow cooking and shaped like a cone to trap moisture and allow it to drip back into the dish. Although I'm sure a tagine would bring back that fun foreign and new feeling, my stock pot did a wonderful job!

Moroccan Chicken Tagine with Couscous

Ingredients:

4 garlic cloves, minced

1tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp ground coriander

1 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp sweet paprika

1 tsp salt
1 whole chicken cut up, back and wings removed (freeze and make stock!)

1 medium onion, chopped

4 garlic cloves, minced

2 cups chicken broth

1 (16 ounce) can of diced tomatoes

2 lemons, one sliced and the other juiced

2 tblspoons honey

1 cup dried apricots, chopped

1 cup greek olives or black kalamata

1/4 cup whole blanched almonds

1 cup couscous

1 handful of chopped cilantro for garnish

Directions:

In a small bowl, mix together garlic and spices and rub all over chicken pieces. Heat a heavy bottom stock pot or casserole over medium high heat. Drizzle in enough oil to coat bottom and add chicken and brown on all sides. Do this in batches so it's not too crowded to brown. Once all chicken is browned, set aside. Add the chopped onion, garlic and any remaining spice mix to the pot. Cook until soft. 

Add chicken broth, tomatoes with their juices and both lemons. Stir to scrape any bits and flavor off  the bottom. Add chicken and cover, reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes. 

Add in honey, apricots and olives. Simmer for an additional 15 minutes. Taste and season if needed.

At this point, my chicken was so tender it was falling off the bone and the skin had come off. I removed the bones and skin. No other recipe I've ever read suggested to do that, so if you'd like to keep them, by all means. I used tongs and roughly shredded the chicken. Simmer uncovered for about 10 mins until the sauce is slightly reduced. In the meantime, make your couscous per directions on package. In a small skillet, toast almonds over medium heat. Roughly chop almonds.

Add coucous to your bowl, ladle chicken and sauce on top and garnish with cilantro and almonds.
Absolutely DELICIOUS! You could also add a can of chickpeas at the same time as the olives. And I would have if I had them!