What’s for Dinner?! Chicken Tagine with Lemon and Olives

Last night I made this amazing recipe for dinner.  It’s easy, ridiculously flavorful, and was a HUGE hit with my entire family.  Both of my kids ate seconds.  It makes your house smell unbelievably yummy too.  Don’t fret if you don’t like olives…I know they tend to be higher on the “not such a fan list” alot of the time.  You cut them up and there aren’t many anyhow.  I wouldn’t omit them though…I’m sure somehow they add fab-o flavor.

A tagine is a teracotta pot used in African and Moroccan style cooking.  It has sort of a flat base with a cone-shaped top and is typically used for making flavorful stews and whatnot.  Apparently the stews that are often cooked in a tagine are named for the actual cooking vessel…thus the name of this recipe.  I don’t have one, and chances are that you don’t either…but no worries, you can do this in a Dutch oven or a large skillet with a lid and it’s totally fine.

I recommend serving this dish with cous cous (I like the kind that comes in a box with a spice pkg…last night I used a whole grain olive oil variety) and warm Naan flatbread.  Yes…I know that’s 2 carbohydrates in one meal, but you’ll want the Naan bread to sop up this amazing sauce.  Peas were my green of choice last night, and honestly they tasted good mixed in with everything all together anyhow.  I also doubled the sauce recipe from the original because this sauce is yummy over the cous cous too…so I’m going to write the recipe for you below just the way that I like to make it.

You’ll need the following to make this wonderfully tasty dish:

• 2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice (about 1 large lemon)
• 12 boneless, skinless chicken thighs (you can use breasts, but the thighs are much more tender and flavorful for this.)
• 1/2-1 c. all-purpose flour (for dredging)
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp ground black pepper
• 1/2 tsp turmeric (you will probably have to buy this bright orange spice…it’s a random one to already have)
• 1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
• 2 Tbsp olive oil (or more perhaps)
• 2 onions, chopped
• 2 tsp minced fresh ginger (or you can use the fresh-ish kind that comes in a refrigerated tube!)
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 c. low sodium chicken broth
• 1/2 c green olives halved or chopped (I used the kinds with the pimento b/c they were WAY cheaper and don’t change the taste in this dish at all)
• rind from 1 lemon, zested
• 2 cinnamon sticks

1. Combine lemon juice and chicken in a large zip-lock plastic bag and marinate in refrigerator for about 30 minutes.  Remove chicken afterwards and discard remaining juice in bag.
2. Pat the chicken dry with paper towels and dredge in mix of flour, pepper, salt, cayenne pepper, and turmeric.  Heat oil in a large skillet with high sides or dutch oven over med-high heat.  Add half of the chicken and cook about 3 minutes on each side or until lightly browned.  Once it’s browned on both sides, remove from pan, add a little more oil as necessary for the second batch of chicken and repeat procedure with other half of chicken.  I also sprinkled a bit more turmeric over the chicken as it browned.  Once done, remove all the chicken from the pan and set aside.
3. Then, to same pan, add the onion, ginger, and garlic and saute until tender (about 5 minutes or so.)  Then return all of the chicken to the pan.  Add the chicken broth, olives, lemon zest, and cinnamon sticks, and about another 1/4 tsp turmeric, and bring to a boil.
4. Once boiling, cover the pan, reduce the heat, and simmer 1 hour or until chicken is tender.  Discard cinnamon stick before serving.

After you make this…come back and leave me a comment and let me know what you thought!  Promise…it’s SOOO yummy.  And just fyi…it takes a little over an hour and a half start to finish.  Most of that time you’re not doing anything but smelling it and trying to make your mouth stop watering though.  It made plenty for us to have leftovers as well.  And I’m sorry, but I forgot to take a picture because my kids were STARVING when I was plating it last night, but it actually does look kinda similar to the stuff in the picture of the tagine above…just to give you sort of an idea.

Can’t wait to see what you all think!  Do you trust me yet with recipes?!  By now, hopefully you should know…I don’t share it if it’s not UH-mazing!

PS.  For those of you who weighed in on my boot dilemna from yesterday…I ordered Boot A, the Bonnie Boot…which was my secret favorite all along!  It was very fun to have most of you agree!  I’ll have to post pictures of me sporting them as soon as they get here!  EEekkkk…can’t wait!  And I meant to let you all know too that the root canal on Little Bit from last week went pretty well.  It was a pretty awful thing to have to do on a 19 month old. My sweet baby did have to be sedated, but still he cried all the way through it…just disoriented I think from it all.  I had to hold his hands (as both comfort and to keep him from flailing) and it was so stinking sad.  I’ll be perfectly happy to never have a front row seat to a root canal again…and happier if it never has to be done on one of my kiddos too!  I do have to say that the pediatric dentist and his staff were worth every freaking out-of-network penny that we paid…they were phenomenal with my baby and with me!