This post may contain affiliate links. Read my full disclosure policy.
Tender chicken, briny green olives, and a fragrant, lemony sauce make this Moroccan chicken tagine recipe a comforting, flavor-packed meal that’s perfect for sharing.
Chicken tagine is a traditional Moroccan dish of chicken braised with warm spices, garlic, onions, olives, and preserved lemons. It’s special enough for company but easy enough for a not-too-busy weeknight. Although a tagine is traditionally cooked in a shallow clay pot with a cone-shaped lid, you don’t need one to make this recipe. I use a large cast-iron braiser, but a wide Dutch oven or heavy covered skillet works just as well.
Adapted from Cook’s Illustrated, this version skips the preserved lemons, which can be difficult to find, and uses fresh lemon zest and juice for brightness instead. Serve it over a bed of couscous to soak up the flavorful sauce.
“This was a fantastic dish! The flavors were so warm and comforting and all worked so well together.”
What You’ll Need To Make Chicken Tagine
- Bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs: My preference for this dish because they stay tender during braising, while the bones and skin add flavor to the sauce. The skin is removed after browning. You can pull the meat off the bones before serving if you prefer.
- Spices: Paprika, cumin, cayenne, ginger, coriander, and cinnamon give the dish its warm, aromatic flavor.
- Garlic and onion: Form the savory base of the sauce.
- Lemon: Both the zest and juice provide the brightness traditionally supplied by preserved lemons.
- Olive oil and flour: The oil is used to brown the chicken, while a little flour thickens the sauce.
- Chicken broth and honey: Create a flavorful braising liquid with a touch of sweetness.
- Carrots: Add color and a little natural sweetness.
- Green olives: Bring a salty, briny contrast. I like Greek cracked green olives, which are “cracked” or split open before curing, allowing the brine or marinade to penetrate. You can find them in your supermarket’s olive bar, or substitute any green olive that you like.
- Fresh cilantro: Adds freshness just before serving.
- Jump to the printable recipe for precise measurements
How To Make Chicken Tagine
Prepare the seasonings: Combine the spices in a small bowl. In another bowl, mix some of the lemon zest with a little minced garlic and set aside for finishing the dish.
Brown the chicken: Season the chicken and brown it on both sides until golden. Transfer to a plate, then remove and discard the skin once it’s cool enough to handle.
Build the sauce: Cook the onions in the remaining pan drippings until lightly browned around the edges. Stir in the garlic, spices, and flour, then add the chicken broth, honey, and remaining lemon zest, scraping up the browned bits from the bottom of the pan.
Braise the chicken and carrots: Return the chicken to the pan and simmer, covered, for 10 minutes. Add the carrots and continue cooking until the chicken is cooked through and the carrots are tender-crisp.
Finish and serve: Stir in the olives, reserved lemon-garlic mixture, cilantro, and lemon juice. Taste and adjust the seasoning, then serve.
Make-Ahead, Storage & Freezing
This is a great dish to make ahead, and the flavors only get better as they sit. Prepare the recipe through the step of cooking the carrots, then let cool and refrigerate for up to 2 days. When you’re ready to serve, gently reheat on the stovetop until the chicken is heated through, then stir in the olives, reserved lemon-garlic mixture, cilantro, and lemon juice.
For longer storage, you can freeze the tagine at the same stage, before adding the finishing ingredients. Let it cool completely, then transfer to an airtight, freezer-safe container and freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator and reheat gently on the stovetop, adding a splash of broth or water if the sauce needs loosening.
Moroccan Chicken Tagine
Ingredients
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
- ½ teaspoon ground ginger
- ½ teaspoon ground coriander
- ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 lemon
- 5 cloves garlic, minced
- 8 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs (about 4 lb/1.8 k), trimmed of excess skin and fat (see note)
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 large yellow onion, halved and cut into ¼-in (6-mm)-thick slices
- 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 1¾ cups chicken broth
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 2 large carrots, peeled and cut crosswise into ½-in (13-mm)-thick coins
- ½ cup green olives (preferably Greek cracked green olives), pitted and halved
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro leaves
Instructions
- Combine the spices in a small bowl and set aside. Zest the lemon. Combine 1 teaspoon of the lemon zest with 1 minced garlic clove; set aside.
- Season both sides of chicken pieces with 2 teaspoons salt and ½ teaspoon pepper.
- Heat the oil in a large heavy-bottomed Dutch oven or pan over medium-high heat until beginning to smoke. Brown the chicken pieces skin side down in single layer until deep golden, about 5 minutes. Flip the chicken pieces over and brown the other side, about 4 minutes more.
- Transfer the chicken to a large plate; when cool enough to handle, peel off the skin and discard. Pour off and discard all but 1 tablespoon of fat from the pan.
- Reduce the heat to medium. Add the onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until they have browned at the edges but still retain their shape, 5 to 7 minutes (add a few tablespoons of water now and then if the pan gets too dark). Add the remaining minced garlic and cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 30 seconds.
- Add the spices and flour and cook, stirring constantly, until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Stir in the broth, honey, remaining lemon zest, and ¼ teaspoon salt, scraping the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon to loosen any browned bits.
- Add the chicken (with any accumulated juices) back in, reduce the heat to medium-low, cover and simmer for 10 minutes.
- Add the carrots, cover, and simmer until the chicken is cooked through and the carrots are tender-crisp, about 10 minutes more.
- Stir in the olives, reserved lemon zest-garlic mixture, cilantro, and 1 tablespoon of the lemon juice. Taste the sauce and adjust seasoning with salt, pepper, and more lemon juice, if desired. Serve with couscous.
Notes
- Don’t fret too much over trimming the chicken thighs. The skin gets removed midway through the cooking process, and most of the fat will cook off and get drained. I usually just take kitchen shears and quickly snip off any excess skin or fat.
Pair with
Nutrition Information
This website is written and produced for informational purposes only. I am not a certified nutritionist and the nutritional data on this site has not been evaluated or approved by a nutritionist or the Food and Drug Administration. Nutritional information is offered as a courtesy and should not be construed as a guarantee. The data is calculated through an online nutritional calculator, Edamam.com. Although I do my best to provide accurate nutritional information, these figures should be considered estimates only. Varying factors such as product types or brands purchased, natural fluctuations in fresh produce, and the way ingredients are processed change the effective nutritional information in any given recipe. Furthermore, different online calculators provide different results depending on their own nutrition fact sources and algorithms. To obtain the most accurate nutritional information in a given recipe, you should calculate the nutritional information with the actual ingredients used in your recipe, using your preferred nutrition calculator.
See more recipes:
What to Serve with Chicken Tagine
For something green alongside the tagine and couscous, try French green beans with shallots. For dessert, serve olive oil cake with fresh berries—a lovely, not-too-heavy way to finish the meal.
More Moroccan-Style Recipes You May Like
Add a Comment
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
Hi Jen,
My husband and I just finished dinner. We had it over Israeli couscous.
Do you have any idea how much we can’t wait to have leftovers? Beyond….
🙂
I very often reference blogs for recipe inspiration, but have NEVER taken the time to review a recipe. This recipe is so freakin’ fantastic that I have to take the time to rate it. 5 stars all the way. The flavors are awesome. Made the recipe as written and the couscous recipe- awesome, awesome, awesome! I’ve shared the recipe with friends immediately. Well, I did make just two changes, I poked holes the skin of the chicken thigh to help the fat under the skin render so that it got nice and golden brown and I left the skin on the thigh instead of removing.
I served this with warm pita and drizzled some Trader Joe’s zhoug sauce over my portion. Will make my own pita and zhoug next time so that it is completely homemade.
I will make some tweeks next time, but only because I’d like to up the vegetables in the dish. I’ll prolly add diced sweet potatoes or maybe butternut squash early, some red, yellow or orange bell peppers in the middle and a big handful of canned chickpeas at the end.
I have made the Juicy Steakhouse burger from this site a few time this past summer. Also a keeper. I will be making her Indian food this week. Homemade naan and chicken tika masala, here I come!
Tonight is my second time making this recipe. I didn’t have carrots on hand the first time, so I used a large yam. It was so good that’s the way I made it again tonight. Maybe I’ll try the carrots next time.
Is this too chilli for a child?
Hi Gee, Do you mean too spicy? If so, I don’t think so. If you’re concerned at all about it, feel free to omit the cayenne pepper. Hope that helps and that you enjoy if you make it!
This has become a go to recipe for me. I treated myself to a larger, heavy-bottomed skillet, and the investment has paid off. Depending on who is visiting, I have added some extra vegetables, usually peas, as they don’t change the flavor of that delicious sauce. Maybe garbanzo beans next time? I’ve served this with quinoa and rice. Because of the added texture, the quinoa is great. The availability of online recipes is astounding, but I really appreciate the recipes from Once Upon A Chef. They are spot on for flavor and accuracy of quantities and measurements. Thank you for creating and sharing all these delicious recipes!
Made this YUMMY tagine with chicken and chickpeas. Added a couple of frozen cubes of lamb broth. I love the lemon-y aspect. It took a bit longer to make than you indicate, but I am in heaven. Thank you for your really interesting website with lots of international recipes, which I love.
This was absolutely outstanding. The flavor profile was spot on. I had to add a chicken breast because of a family member who only eats white meat and it was as delectable and moist as the thighs. Even gluten free flour couldn’t hurt it. The seasonings, the lemon and garlic, the olives, all combine to make magic. We will be making this again and again. Jenn you have yet to disappoint! Thank you !
This recipe is phenomenal!! I’ve made it half a dozen times and it turns out amazing every time. It takes me back to when my little French grandma from North Africa used to make it for our family on very special occasions. She used lamb in her recipe, but I’m loving it with chicken. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but this recipe is better than grandma’s!!
Hi Jenn,
I LOVED this recipe. I have tried several of your recipes and they are absolute perfection. I am an avid cook and am truly impressed with the precision of flavour in all of your recipes. In addition, the ingredient quantities are always the exact and correct amount of spice, stock, veg etc. Thank you for your wonderful inspiration.
Jody
💗
SO DELICIOUS!
Have to agree – this is an amazing sauce with a real depth of flavour. I’m going to try it with lamb next