This Chicken Tagine with Potatoes, Carrots and Apples is a delicious one pot meal full of herby and tangy flavours. All you need is some bread! Or couscous.
Estimated reading time: 4 minutes
What is an Authentic Tagine Recipe?
One of the more common questions I get asked in my Moroccan cooking classes is what makes an authentic tagine recipe.
My reply is always the same: there are too many tagine recipes to call a single one authentic and it also does rather depend on where you are from!
While you can get almost specific recipes in North Africa, you are most likely going to find a huge mix of combinations, both in terms of “filling” and flavour.
Chicken tagines, lamb tagines, vegetable tagines, egg tagines; with or without olives, with or without preserved lemons and so many other variations.
Today’s Chicken Tagine Recipe
Today’s recipe is pretty straightforward, and like all tagine recipes, can be made in a tagine, a Dutch oven or a regular saucepan.
- We start off with making Chermoula, a 5 minute marinade that’s popular all over North Africa. Click to read more.
- We then marinate the chicken while we get the other ingredients ready, then off we go, leaving everything on the hob.
If you can, and the chicken will be better for it, marinade the chicken for an hour or even overnight if you fancy.
One Pot Chicken Tagine Recipe
Sometimes, tagines are a side dish, but sometimes, they can be a complete one pot meal. Like today’s chicken tagine.
Here, the potatoes and carrots add substance to the whole dish and a touch of sweet as well. The apples add a wonderful sweet and tangy dimension that complements the preserved lemon we’re using in this recipe.
The final dish is a complex mix of earthy, spicy (not hot) sweet and tangy flavours that will be perfect with just about any starch you fancy having.
How to Serve this Chicken Tagine?
When eating out in North Africa, we would almost always have these kind of tagines with bread. However, if we were buying it to take it home, we’d cook some couscous to go with it, as the kids prefer it with couscous.
So you can serve it however you like, and really, any bread will do. I have a thing about French baguettes and stews/curries – match made in heaven!
Needless to say, white rice is another fantastic accompaniment to tagines, its bland constitution soaks up all the flavours of a tagine beautifully.
What is Liquid Saffron (Bloomed Saffron)?
You’ll see that I list liquid saffron as an ingredient here, something that we’ll be making ourselves that takes minutes only.
Some Middle Eastern recipes, especially of Persian origin, call for liquid saffron. On the other hand, many recipes by non Middle Eastern cooks will ask you to soak the saffron in water for 20 minutes or so before using it.
In the former, you use every single bit of the saffron. However, in the latter, the saffron threads, to me, are wasted and not fully appreciated in the recipe.
To get liquid saffron, all we do is grind it and soak it briefly in hot water. That’s it.
Click the button below for my method and the video that accompanies it.
Making this Chicken Tagine Vegetarian
Replace the chicken with a combination of chickpeas (and/or other beans) and stew friendly vegetables like courgettes (zucchini), aubergines (eggplants) and squash. Even okra would be great but leave them whole.
Make Ahead Chicken Tagine
Can be made well ahead of time and reheated very gently. It is absolutely wonderful the next day, just like curries and stews.
However, I wouldn’t freeze it, as the potatoes will basically fall apart after freezing.
If you like the recipe, don’t forget to leave me a comment and that all important, 5-star rating! Merci!
And if you make the recipe, share it on any platform and tag me @azlinbloor, and hashtag it #linsfood
Lin xx
Chicken Tagine with Potatoes, Carrots and Apples
Ingredients
- 1 kg chicken portions
- 1 large white onion sliced in rings
- 2 medium-sized tomatoes sliced in rings
- 2 large potatoes cut in long wedges
- 2 large carrots halved then sliced lengthwise to match the potato slices
- 2 large eating apples of your choice
- 125 ml water
- ½ a preserved lemon
- 1 small handful of parsley and coriander cilantro for garnishing
Chermoula Paste
- 2 Tbsp EV olive oil
- 1 Tbsp liquid saffron
- ½ the pulp from the preserved lemon finely chopped
- 3 cloves garlic finely chopped/crushed
- 1 small handful of fresh coriander cilantro, chopped (leaves and stalks)
- 1 small handful of fresh parsley chopped (leaves and stalks)
- 1 tsp ground ginger
- ½ tsp black pepper
- ½ tsp ground turmeric
- 1 Tbsp sweet paprika
- 1 tsp cumin
- 1 tsp coriander
- 1 tsp salt
Instructions
Make the Chermoula First
- Make the chermoula by mixing all the ingredients together, saving the preserved lemon rind. You could place everything in a chopper for a smoother paste. Set aside.2 Tbsp EV olive oil, 1 Tbsp liquid saffron, ½ the pulp from the preserved lemon, 3 cloves garlic, 1 small handful of fresh coriander, 1 small handful of fresh parsley, 1 tsp ground ginger, ½ tsp black pepper, ½ tsp ground turmeric, 1 Tbsp sweet paprika, 1 tsp cumin, 1 tsp coriander, 1 tsp salt
Marinate the Chicken
- Marinate the chicken portions with it and set aside while you get the other ingredients going.If you have the time, leave the chicken to marinate for about 1 hour, or even overnight, in the fridge.1 kg chicken portions
Let's Get Cooking
- Slice the preserved lemon rind into thin slithers and set aside.½ a preserved lemon
- Take your chosen cooking pot, whether a tagine, a dutch oven or a regular old saucepan and line it with the sliced onions.1 large white onion
- Follow with the tomato slices.2 medium-sized tomatoes
- Then, place the chicken all around the pot, over the tomatoes, spreading them out and packing them in neatly. Reserve the extra chermoula.
- Scatter the preserved lemon rind slices all over.
- Arrange the potatoes and carrot slices with their ends meeting in the middle, forming a slight dome shape, as in the picture. Don't worry about neatness. If you have too many, do an extra layer or tuck them in amongst the chicken.2 large potatoes, 2 large carrots
- The apple slices are going to be too small to "line up" alongside the potatoes and carrots, so I like to just "insert" them in whatever spaces I can see. But feel free to line them up double to meet the length of the carrots and potatoes.2 large eating apples of your choice
- Pour the water on the side of your cooking pot, without it touching and "rinsing" the chicken.125 ml water
- Finally, top the vegetables and fruit with the rest of the chermoula.
- Place the pot on the hob on medium high heat, remembering the diffuser if you are using a tagine itself.
- Bring everything to a simmer, then lower the heat almost right down and cook for 2 hours if using a tagine and 1 hour if not. Check to make sure that the potatoes are done.
- When done, take off heat and leave the tagine to rest for 10 minutes.
- Scatter the herbs all over and serve.1 small handful of parsley and coriander
Looks very good. However, I would say that putting a tagine in the oven does not work. I don’t add liquid to tagines. The water that comes from the chicken and vegetables is driven off during cooking, but condenses in the conical lid, and slides down the inside of the lid to the perimeter of the base, ie it does not drip onto the chicken/veg, and stopping (or reducing) the formation of Maillard reaction products so necessary in a tagine. If the tagine is put in an oven, the steam will not condense, and will probably be lost, along with some flavour. For the same reason, I would not add tomatoes unto later in the cooking process. The sliced onions will add sugars to the chicken, again forming Maillard products, but the tomato would stop/reduce this from happening. Just try it!
Cheers
I can’t use a diffuser on my induction range, it makes the cooktop go into errors. What temp and length should I use if I put it in the oven?
Thanks!
Hi Susan, cook it in the oven at 160℃ (325℉) for around 2 hours.
Check at the 90-minute mark and see if your chicken is cooked through.
BUT REMEMBER, place your tagine in the cold oven, then turn it on.
This recipe had so much umami. It was delicious and I can’t wait to make it again. We did not have preserved lemon, so we used fresh and we did not have saffron. It was amazing all the same. This meal will become a regular in our family rotation.
Hi Sandra, I’m so pleased to hear that. It is one of our favourites too, I love the whole meat, vegetable and fruit combination.
I did it, it was fantastic. The best tagine recipe, I’ll be doing it more frequently now, thank you!
Yay! I am so pleased to hear that, Sylvia. Did you make it in a tagine?
Also, thanks for letting me know.
I used a Dutch oven and followed precisely all instructions 🙂
Will be cooking this again tomorrow as we’re having special guests, I simply cannot wait 🙂 Thank you again for the amazing recipe!
Awesome, Sylvia, really pleased to hear that. This is one of my favourite tagine recipes. Have a lovely day with your guests! x
Hi Lin, this is my first time ever cooking a tagine and it was AMAZING!! Thank you for sharing and I will be making this again very soon!!
Since I am new, I had a couple of questions that I hope you can answer so that others like me can learn:
1) the ingredient list includes “4 Tbsp EV olive oil” but the Instructions didn’t mention when to use it so I just drizzled some before placing it on hob. When do we use the olive oil?
2) With the preserved lemons, you mentioned it needs to be cut into thin slithers…are we talking about matchstick size? I may just leave it whole and then take it out once its all cooked as it’s very strongly flavoured. Any tips?
3) When making the chermoula paste, you mentioned to chop cilantro and parsley. Do you mean just the leaves or should we chop both the leaves and the green stalk?
4) I’m thinking of doubling the amount of onions and tomatoes because they shrunk down in the cooking process quite a bit, do you think that will be ok with this recipe?
4) Lastly, what do you suggest I should cook next as my 2nd dish since this chicken tagine has set such an unbelievably high and delicious standard 🙂
Hi there, thank you so much for using the recipe, and I’m glad you liked it. Sorry it took me a few days to get back to you, we’ve been away. Let me address your questions individually.
1. 4 Tbsp olive oil – this is my error. I don’t use any more oil, as we already have it in the chermoula, and we don’t need to sauté anything at the start, I’ll remove that. Did you find the tagine a little oily because of the extra olive oil? Personally, I can image that it would have been delicious!
2. Preserved lemons – yes, in matchstick size. The idea is that you get a taste of the preserved lemon with almost every mouthful. However, if you are not keen on the taste, yes, by all means, use it whole, and remove it after cooking. Here, half goes into the chermoula.
3. Chermoula – cilantro and parsley, I use the whole lot, leaves and stalks. I clarify that.
4. Onions and tomatoes, you’ll be fine with doubling the amount. I do that quite often, as I love them. They will still fall apart during the lengthy cooking. You could place some onion rings/slices at the top of chicken halfway through cooking, if you like them whole.
5. What to cook next? Tough one! I love them all, but the fish and the okra are 2 of my favourites. And the khlea tagine is just amazing too, which requires you to make the preserved meat first.
All tagine recipes can be found on the Tagine Masterclass page: https://www.linsfood.com/tagine-masterclass/
I’ll be adding more recipes in the coming months. Thank you once again, and I’m so glad you’re enjoying your tagine adventure!
thanks for your comments/insight, I’ll be sure to remember it next time I cook this delicious chicken tagine. I subscribed to your newsletter and I can’t wait for your next recipe 😀
A pleasure and thank you!
I have this on the stove cooking in my tagine and it smells divine! Can’t wait for dinner. When I made the chermoula paste, it was quite dry so I added a tablespoon of olive oil. Is there a reason there is no olive oil in the ingredient list? Thanks!
Hi Beth, that’s really awesome! How did it go?
I seem to have left out the olive oil from the ingredients list, there should be 2 tablespoons of it in the chermoula. Thanks for picking up on that. Have edited and added. x