Chicken Tagine With Olives and Preserved Lemons Recipe (2024)

I've made this several times.
A few points/suggestions.
* See Paula Wolfert's "Couscous and Other Good Food from Morocco" for variations.
* I know it's customary to use both saffron and turmeric in Morocco. IMO this is a mistake. Turmeric is excellent, but it's not subtle and overwhelms the saffron. Use one or the other. I use saffron.
* The recipe says discard the preserved lemon pulp. However, Paula Wolfert says she does not bother and uses the pulp. So do I.

I have made this several times. I use 6-8 chicken thighs, bone-in and skin on. After browning chicken in step 2, I remove and discard the skin, leaving flavorful fond in the skillet. Drain excess chicken fat at this point.
I increase the amount of olives, and sometimes garnish with cilantro instead of parsley. A small amount of honey, added at the end of cooking, can add balance if it's too acidic.

"Marinating" the chicken in the spices doesn't really work. Skip this step and add the spices to the onions. (The spice rub burned in the pan while the chicken was browning.)

I made this exactly as described a small tagine with 4 chicken thighs. Nothing burned with browning. Tumeric plus saffron as described. Delectable decadence, no honey needed. Served with rice, flat bread and a orange watercress avocado pistachio goat cheese salad with a sweetish vinaigrette. My partner could not stop moaning, yes, like that.

I use skinless thighs & sometimes breasts with the rub overnight. I sauté the onions but skip browning the chicken,. Then I put everything in a heavy covered casserole & bake in the oven. Turns out great. Use home made preserved lemons, much better than what I buy in jars.

I just made this for myself and a friend and we both really enjoyed it. I added potatoes, carrots and green beans to up the veggie quotient and some cilantro in addition to parsley at the end. Loved the preserved lemon with this! In my opinion there is no need to add honey. This recipe is definitely going into my regular rotation! I think next time I might discard the chicken skin, because I wasn't crazy about the texture of it when cooked this way.

I made this in my dutch oven. I used skinless chicken thighs, left in the lemon pulp, and prepped all of the other ingredients as directed. I baked it, covered, in the oven at 350 degrees, somewhere between 30 minutes to an hour (I think it was an hour). The chicken fell off the bone. I served this over couscous with a dollop of hummus. This reminds me of a version that I had in Marrakesh.

No, you put everything in. Preserving the lemons removes the bitter taste. The peels become very soft & part of the sauce. I don't discard the pulp either. The flavor is amazing, not exactly lemony.

Love this dish. Used all the mentioned ingredients, but added golden raisins. Also, followed the recommendation to use thighs and not marinate, but cook the onions, garlic and spices together. I did it all on the stove top. This dish was a huge hit and will become a go to for dinner guests as it served up even better the next day. I recommend cooking it the day before and reheating for dinner guests giving you more time to enjoy your company. We served it with Jasmine rice - perfect.

This was great! I used 4 chicken thighs and 6 legs and cooked it in a 12 inch cast iron skillet. My only complaint is that the garlic on the chicken burnt by the time the chicken was browned - next time I will cook the garlic with the onions instead.

Delicious. I also left out the turmeric to favor the saffron. Slow cooked it in the oven, and used freshly ground cumin seeds. I've made many a tagine and this was up there with the best.

This was phenomenal. I followed the recipe closely and took some creative license here and there (I don't measure spices). I also put a bit more stock and let it hang out on low with the lid on for a while, while I farted around the house doing Sunday things. I didn't have preserved lemon, so I used fresh lemon sliced very thinly, which I threw in with the onions. It was out of control good. I spooned it over Israeli couscous with raisins.

Add carrots and apricots, dares or prunes.Cover and put in 350 oven for 45 to 60 minutes

Preserved lemons are really easy to make. There's a bunch of recipes out there, adding herbs etc. - just pick your fave. They are worth making, and cooking with, and very expensive to buy, so make your own!

This was outstanding. I made a few substitutions for time. I made this with salmon and cooked it for 8 min, used lemon paste (couldn’t find preserved lemon), and added a little Sri Lankan mango chutney (Trader Joe’s) for sweetness since I served it to 7, 5, and 3 year olds. I added the olives at the end so they would stay firm. I also took the advice of another cook on here and chose saffron over turmeric. Served it with toasted pearl couscous and charred baby broccoli. Everyone loved it.

Sublime! Used a Le Creuset tagine - one pot does it all. Doubled spices (half to marinate, half to cook with onions), cut onions to two and chicken broth to 1/2 cup. After assembly it went into a 350 oven for one hour. Homemade preserved lemon is key here - no medicinal funk. Next time I would use garlic powder in the marinade and save the real garlic for the half that goes with the onions, as I had some issues with burning and just did my best to pull out the really dark pieces. Loved it!

Editing my previous note:1. Slice the preserved lemons before you marinate the chicken.2. Scrape off as much of the marinade as possible because it can burn before the chicken can brown. I use a spatula.

I morfed two recipes into one.I added 2 dried Persian limes cracked and torn into quarters. 1cup cilantro1 cup orange juice. I marinate the chicken in all the spices, lemons, limes, olives, and garlic, except for the saffron for a few hours or over night. I bake skin side down covered for 40 minutes then uncover turn over the chicken and bake for another 20-25 minutes to brown and crisp.It turns into a braise which is delectable.

Great dish! Made with skin-on, bone-in chicken thighs. Did not marinate but added spices to onion and garlic saute. Omitted the turmeric. Cooked perfectly in 30 minutes stovetop low in an enameled cast-iron skillet. Served over Cajun Dirty Rice.

More olives and preserved lemons Chicken strips cooked for less time

Love this dish. Easy to make. I add dried apricots and prunes.

I liked this well enough but didn't really get the hype around it. It was fine.

I used boneless and skinless chicken thighs as that is what I had on hand, turned out amazing. I used preserved lemons with pull with no issues, served with couscous. I think sultanas or apricots in a small dose would be a lovely addition, but can't go wrong with what's written.

I would decrease the amount of broth. It was a bit too “liquidy”.

Great recipe! Doubled the spices for the chicken. Added a few cut up dried apricots which was really nice! Used the juice of a whole lemon. Otherwise followed the recipe exactly and it was perfect.

I used an Emile Henry tagine to brown chicken and cook onions on stovetop before finishing it all in oven for 30 mins at 350. Yes - the prescribed method to coat chicken first results in burnt garlic and spices (in my case fresh ginger too). Used my preserved lemons and added carrots and a few dates. Flavors were ok but final dish was too liquidy as it lacked any thickening agent. Next time I'll follow Once Upon a Chef's version (including not coating the chicken in spices before browning)!

This was amazing! We didn't have time to marinate the chicken, but it still turned out moist and flavourful. Browning the chicken was key. We added some dried prunes and apricots, as well as the preserved lemons (including the pulp). We don't have a tagine so we used a Dutch oven. It was really fantastic.

Cooking time closer to an hourDiscard flesh from half of the preserved lemons10 olives of each typeMore apricots?Good with millet

This dish is full of magically delicious flavors! I used bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs, and also left the garlic out of the initial chicken rub and added it during the onion step. I used fresh lemons (didn't have preserved lemons but am inspired to make some now); the fresh lemons (sliced very thin so they cooked more fully) were delicious here! I served it with a cardamom-scented basmati rice with golden raisins in it - the sweetness of the raisins was perfect with the other flavors.