Chicken Tagine with Apricots
Slow-braised chicken with dried apricots, almonds, and warm spices.
Meat
⚠ Contains: Dairy, Tree Nut. Always check your own ingredients — this isn't a guarantee for severe allergies.
How this varies: Some households pair apricots with preserved lemon and green olives instead of almonds and honey — a saltier-sweet variant more common in Fez-style cooking than the sweeter Marrakech style reflected here.
Ingredients
- 1 whole chicken, cut into pieces (or 6 thighs)
- 2 onions: 1 sliced thin, 1 grated or finely minced
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tsp ginger, 1/2 tsp black or white pepper, 1 tsp cinnamon (plus 1 cinnamon stick), pinch saffron threads, bloomed in 2 tbsp warm water
- 1 cup dried apricots
- 1/4 cup blanched almonds
- 2 tbsp butter or ghee (for frying almonds)
- 2 cups chicken stock or water
- 1 tbsp honey
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- Salt, to taste
- Cilantro and flat-leaf parsley, tied in a bundle, plus more chopped to garnish
- Wedge of preserved lemon rind, sliced thin (optional, traditional garnish)
Steps
- Heat olive oil in a tagine or heavy pot, season chicken with salt, ginger, pepper, and half the cinnamon, brown on all sides, remove and set aside.
- In the same pot, sauté the sliced onion until soft; stir in the grated onion, garlic, remaining spices, and the saffron with its soaking water, cooking 1-2 minutes until fragrant.
- Return chicken to the pot, add stock and the herb bundle, bring to a simmer, cover, and cook low 45-60 minutes, turning occasionally, until chicken is very tender and the sauce has reduced.
- Meanwhile, fry the almonds in butter until golden; set aside.
- About 20 minutes before the chicken is done, add the dried apricots and honey so they plump and soften without turning to mush.
- Uncover for the final 10 minutes to thicken the sauce; taste and adjust salt.
- Discard the herb bundle. Scatter with fried almonds, chopped cilantro, and preserved lemon strips if using; serve with couscous or bread.