First Tagine attempt

I always wanted to have some way of slow cooking meat. This has multiple advantages, it’s healthy because there’s no oil required, the meat stays juicy and you can get away with cheaper cuts of meat. Last week I finally bought my own tagine and gave it a shot on the weekend. I had various recipes as inspiration, this is what I ended up with.

Ingredients

• 800g chicken legs
• 1 tbsp Harissa
• 1 onion
• 1 zuchhini
• 1 can of cut tomatoes
• 300ml chicken stock
• 1 tbsp each cinnamon, cumin, ginger, turmeric
• 6 dates, cut into pieces
• some chickpeas

I think I should have used fresh instead of canned tomato, I ended up having too much liquid for my tagine size. I just had the dates lying around, it’s nice to add some dried fruit for some sweetness but it’s not necessary, from what I learned online you’re pretty flexible with veggies and meat.

Preparation

I cut up the chicken legs and marinated them with the harissa paste for one hour, prepared the broth and mixed it with the spices, and cut up the zuchhini and dates.

Then I arranged everything in layers, starting with some onions.

I added the chicken pieces next. Some recipes recommend frying the meat first before adding it to the tagine, but I stuck to the simple one-pot philosophy.

Then I added the veggies and dates.

Finally, I added the broth realizing I had too much liquid, I removed some so it wouldn’t come out under the lid. Next I covered it and let it simmer for about three hours, prepared some couscous and served it on a plate.

Enjoy!