I will admit that this is a fiddly recipe in that there are a lot of steps but most of them don't really require a lot of time - you can do other things while the chicken is marinating or various things are cooking.
I put together this recipe after watching several Middle Eastern friends cook and after reading many tagine recipes. L. and I are not huge fans of meat with sweet which is why I didn't take the usual chicken with apricots or dates tagine route. I loathe olives with a passion (rivaled only by my intense dislike of Chardonnay) so that ruled out the traditional tagine with green olives and preserved lemons option as well.
This tagine is actually a bastardized cross between a tagine and couscous and would taste really delicious with the addition of merguez if you can find it. I know that it will seem as though I have really used a lot of spices but they meld together in the sauce and are not overwhelming at all.
I served this dish with fluffy couscous and, since we ate all of the chicken, pureed the remaining veggies and sauce into a truly delectable soup for my lunch the next day with the addition of a little Greek yogurt and chopped cilantro. If you wanted to make this into a one pot meal, you could omit the couscous as a side dish and add some potatoes to the dish.
Marinade/spice base
2 large red peppers
3 dried chilis
2 cloves garlic
2 tsps ground cumin
2 tsps ground coriander
1 tsp salt
2 tsps caraway seed
2 Tbsps olive oil
1/2 cup boiling water
Preheat oven to 425.
Broil the red peppers until the skin is black and blistered on all sides, about 10 minutes. Turn the oven off and allow the peppers to cool in the oven (the residual heat will cook them a bit more).
While the peppers are cooling, pour the boiling water over the dried chilis. Allow them to sit so that they rehydrate. When they are rehydrated, remove them from the water and set the water aside to use later in the sauce.
Measure the spices into a blender. Add the peeled and seeded red peppers, the garlic and the rehydrated chilis. If you are not a huge fan of spicy, remove the seeds from the chilis first. Blitz into a thick paste. Add the olive oil and mix well.
Use 1/4 cup of the paste as a marinade for the chicken. Reserve the rest for the tagine sauce.
The Tagine
2 lbs chicken thighs (I bought skinless and boneless for convenience sake)
1/2 red onion, diced
6 cups of diced vegetables (I used 2 cups each of carrot, turnip and zucchini; parsnip, squash and potato would taste good as well)
1 can garbanzo beans
2 tsps ground cumin
2 tsps ground coriander
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 Tbsps freshly grated ginger
1/2 cup chopped cilantro leaves
Salt to taste
3 cups water or chicken stock
Sauce base not used in marinade for chicken
1 cup tomato sauce (homemade is best but passata or plain pre-made spaghetti sauce will work)
2 Tbsps chopped preserved lemon (optional, I just happen to have a vat that I made taking up fridge real estate)
2 Tbsps olive oil
Harissa or hot sauce to taste
Put the chicken thighs in a bowl with the 1/4 cup of marinade and allow to soak in the flavors while you get your vegetables ready by chopping them into equal sized pieces.
Heat one tablespoon of the oil over medium heat in a large stock pot. When it is hot, add the chicken pieces in batches and sear for a couple of minutes on each side. You may have to add some of the remaining oil to keep the batches from sticking. Once they are seared, set aside onto a plate.
Add remaining oil to the pan. Throw in the red onion dice, the spices and the grated ginger and cook for a few minutes until the onion is starting to soften. Make sure that you stir constantly and that you scrape up all of the bits left from cooking the chicken - this will add flavor to the final sauce (but burnt bits will not!)
Turn the heat down to low. Add the carrots, the turnips and the partially cooked chicken to the pot. Pour over the water, the tomato sauce and the remaining spice base not used as a marinade. Cover and cook for 30 minutes, stirring a couple of times.
After 30 minutes, taste the sauce and season with salt. Add the zucchini, the garbanzo beans, the chopped coriander and as much of the water from the rehydrated chilis as you need to bring the punch of heat to the sauce that suits your palate.
Cook for 15 minutes more and check for seasoning, adding more salt and some Harissa or hot sauce to the sauce if needed.
Serve on a mound of fluffy couscous with a piece of meat, lots of veggies and a generous ladle of sauce. Top with some of the preserved lemon and a little extra chopped coriander. I put dishes of chopped preserved lemon and Harissa on the table so that people can add heat if needed.