Chicken Tagine With Preserved Lemons and Olives

Method

1. Pat the chicken thighs dry with paper towel and season them on both sides with the salt and half the pepper.
2. Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a heavy casserole over medium-high heat.
3. Brown the thighs skin side down for 6 to 7 minutes, in two batches if the pan is crowded, until the skin is deep golden and lifts away from the base on its own.
4. Turn them, give them 2 minutes on the second side, then move them to a plate.
5. Pour off all but about 2 tablespoons of the fat.
6. Turn the heat to medium-low and cook the onions in that fat for 10 to 12 minutes, stirring now and then, until they are soft and starting to colour.
7. Add the garlic and cook it for 1 minute, no longer, because it catches quickly in hot chicken fat.
8. Add the cumin, ground ginger, paprika, turmeric, cinnamon stick and the rest of the pepper, and stir for 30 seconds until the spices smell toasted.
9. Return the chicken to the pan skin side up, along with any juices left on the plate.
10. Pour in the stock and scatter the preserved lemon strips around the chicken, not over the skin.
11. Bring the pan to a bare simmer, cover it, and cook at the lowest simmer your stove will hold for 40 minutes.
12. Take the lid off and cook for another 15 minutes, so the sauce reduces and thickens around the thighs.
13. Stir the drained olives through the sauce and give them 3 minutes to warm.
14. Taste the sauce for salt now, and only now, because the lemon and the olives have both been seasoning it while you were not looking.
15. Scatter the coriander over the top, drizzle with the last tablespoon of olive oil, and serve with couscous, rice or flatbread.

Make ahead, and the second night

This is better on day two, which makes it a good pot to cook on a Sunday. Stop it at step 12, cool it, and keep it covered in the fridge for up to three days. Reheat it gently on the stove with a splash of water, then add the olives and the coriander as though you had just made it. The olives are the one thing that does not improve with sitting.

Leftover meat pulled off the bone, warmed through in its own sauce and piled onto flatbread with yoghurt, is the best lunch this recipe produces. Cold, the sauce sets to a jelly, which is a sign the thighs gave up what they were meant to. A crisp side cuts through all of it, and our green salad with preserved lemon dressing uses another quarter of the same jar.

Common questions

Do you use the whole preserved lemon or just the skin?

Just the skin. Quarter the lemon, run a knife between the rind and the pulp, scrape the pulp out and rinse the rind briefly before you slice it. The pulp is salt, seeds and loose juice, and it makes a sauce cloudy and over-salted. All the flavour you are after, the soft savoury citrus that behaves more like an aromatic than an acid, sits in the rind.

Do you need a tagine pot to make a tagine?

No. The pot's cone lid returns condensed steam to the food, and a heavy casserole with a lid that sits flush does close enough to the same thing. Cast iron or enamelled cast iron holds low heat best. If you do use an unglazed clay tagine on a gas flame, put a heat diffuser under it and bring it up slowly, because clay does not like a sudden hot ring.

How long do preserved lemons keep once opened?

Refrigerated, with the fruit kept under its brine and a clean dry spoon used every time, an opened jar goes a long way past a single meal. Check your jar's label for the manufacturer's advice on how long after opening it should be used. Top the brine up with lemon juice if it drops below the top lemon, and keep the rim clean so the lid seals properly.

What olives are best in a tagine?

Firm green or purple-black olives in brine, added at the end. A mixed jar such as the Mediterranean olives gives you more variety on the plate, and kalamata are the choice if you want one variety with a deeper, more savoury bite. Avoid soft black olives from a tin, which collapse in a hot sauce. Whatever you use, keep it out of the pot until the last three minutes.

The preserved lemons, the olives and the oil for this recipe all sit within the Belazu range and our Kangaroo Island shelf, and shipping is free Australia-wide on orders over $100.