I am so excited that I finally got to try one of the recipes from our cookbook.
It took me two days, and two trips to the grocery store to get all the ingredients I needed. I chose the Chicken Tagine because the ingredient list was relatively short. I thought I had saffron, but it turns out I only had "Saffron Powder" which looks more like ground galangal than saffron.
I started the preserved lemons back in January, and they have been gracing the pantry ever since. This was the first time I had checked them in a long time and I was happy to note that they were mold-free. When I opened the jar, a tidal wave of lemon-fresh-scent assaulted my nose, it was almost unreal (and reminiscent of dish soap). I started at 3:30 in the afternoon, I couldn't get my youngest son to go to sleep, so he was around, keeping me company. I was hoping to have it done by 5, for dinner. It took me a long time to gather the ingredients, and I kept forgetting to pull things out. Besides the saffron, I also didn't have the fancy "cracked green olives" so I had to make do with the pimento-stuffed olives from the corner likker store. I did have some sorry-looking leeks that needed to be used, so they got thrown in the mix, too.
I also don't have a tagine, so I used this blue enamel roaster from IKEA. The recipe called for a "heavy flame-proof casserole with lid". This bad boy should fit that bill. I also didn't have the patience to "shred the onions" so I used the immersion-blender food processor attachment.
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| Left-inside, Right-outside |
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| All ready for the simmer! |
The recipe calls for two "rubs"-- the cilantro-garlic-lemon-juice-salt combo that goes in the cavity, and the onion-saffron-ginger-pepper rub that goes on the outside of the chicken. This was a tedious step, but the food processor made it a bit quicker than otherwise. I didn't get the chicken in the pot for another hour (I got a phone call from a good friend). Plus, it had to "rest" for a half hour. In the future, maybe I'd do that the day before. Sitting around for a half hour was kind of lame-- but junior and I did get a few minutes of yoga in. The chicken came trussed, so I left it that way.
Once I got it simmering, the directions say to "turn the chicken occasionally". I did not do this, I was a bit mystified as to how I would do this with boiling stock and a big old chicken. After the prescribed hour, I reduced the liquids, and popped it into the 300 F oven. The house was full of a wonderful aroma of cinnamon, chicken and lemon, which was delightfully yule-tide-ish.
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| Boiled Chicken or Tagine Fail? |
Usually, to brown a chicken, recipes call for a 400-450 F oven. I thought 300 was quite cool, but I did it anyways. When I pulled it out, the leg was quite pink. I don't have an IR thermometer, but it did not look done! I was very disappointed, and I shoved the bird back into the liquid and onto the stove. Perhaps this was a mistake, but rubbery, pink chicken is gross. By this time, the kid's bedtime was approaching, so we put them to bed. When they were down, we reevaluated what was becoming a chicken-disaster. It probably simmered another 30 minutes. This time, it was boiled chicken-- the skin did not have the nice browning the chicken in the photograph did. I served it with couscous, and the liquid was still quite runny. It was quite good, Joe said it was "delicious" (what a sweetie! If he had said anything else, I would have burst into tears.) Surprisingly, the lemons were edible and very good! They almost tasted candied (but I never added sugar to them). Even the dorky cocktail olives were tasty. I didn't get around to sampling the stuffing, but Joe reported that it was very garlicky and yummy.
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| Plated and um... I won't win any awards for this. |
To sum up
My prep+cooking time-- about four hours. Not a good weeknight pick.
Would I do it again? Maybe-- I have a few more lemons to use up.
Tweeks-- BROWN THAT DAMN CHICKEN! Forty-five minutes of simmering should cook a normal chicken. I don't know what went wrong here, besides the fact that the recipe tells you to "add water up to the middle of the chicken". Maybe next time I'll just bake it with the lid on.
The leftovers look glorious-- I am going to resurrect it tomorrow night as a lemony chicken soup.
PS. Here is a link for
baked chicken times at 350 F
