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Moroccan Chicken Tagine

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Moroccan Chicken Tagine

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Chicken tagine is a traditional Moroccan dish of chicken pieces braised with spices, garlic, onion, olives, and preserved lemons. It’s company-worthy yet easy to throw together.

moroccan chicken tagine

Chicken tagine is a traditional Moroccan dish of chicken braised with spices, garlic, onion, olives, and preserved lemons. It’s a company-worthy dish yet easy enough to throw together on a not-too-busy weeknight. The word tagine refers to the shallow clay vessel with a cone-shaped lid in which the dish is traditionally cooked, but you don’t need one to make it. I use a large cast-iron braiser; a wide Dutch oven or heavy covered skillet will work, too. This recipe, tweaked a bit from Cook’s Illustrated, does not call for preserved lemons, a specialty ingredient that can be difficult to find. Instead, lemon zest and fresh lemon juice add tart brightness to the dish. Serve the chicken on a platter or individual plates over a bed of couscous.

What you’ll need To Make Chicken Tagine

Ingredients including spices, carrot, and chicken broth.

While you can use a whole cut-up chicken for chicken tagine, my preference is to use bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs only, similar to my coq au vin recipe. The thighs provide a good amount of meat and remain tender even if slightly overcooked, and the bones and skin add depth of flavor and richness to the sauce (though the skin is removed midway through cooking). Sometimes, I pull the meat off the bone before serving — makes it easier and more appealing for the kids to eat — but serving the chicken on the bone is traditional.

How To Make Chicken Tagine

To begin, combine the spices in small bowl.

Bowl of unmixed spices.

Mix well and set aside.

Spoon in a bowl of mixed spices.

Zest the lemon. Combine 1 teaspoon of the lemon zest with 1 minced garlic clove; set aside.

Bowls of lemon zest with a microplane grater and a zested lemon.

Season both sides of chicken pieces with 2 teaspoons salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper.

Seasoned chicken on parchment paper.

Heat the oil in a large Dutch oven or heavy-bottomed 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.

Seasoned chicken in a skillet.

Using tongs, flip the chicken pieces over and brown the other side, about 4 minutes more. Seasoned chicken in a skillet.

Transfer the chicken to a large plate; when cool enough to handle, peel off the skin and discard.

Tongs grabbing chicken from a skillet.

Pour off and discard all but 1 tablespoon of fat from the pan, reduce the heat to medium, and add the onion.

Onions in a skillet.

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 if the pan gets too dark).

Skillet of browned onions.

Add the remaining minced garlic and cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add the spices and flour.

Spices and flour in a skillet with browned onions.

Cook, stirring constantly, until fragrant, about 30 seconds.

Wooden spoon stirring a skillet of onions.

Stir in the broth, honey, remaining lemon zest, and 1/4 teaspoon salt, scraping the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon to loosen any browned bits.

Broth and lemon zest in a skillet with onions.

Add the chicken (with any accumulated juices) back in, reduce the heat to medium-low, cover and simmer for 10 minutes.

Chicken in a skillet with broth.

Scatter the carrots around the chicken, cover, and simmer until the chicken is cooked through and the carrots are tender-crisp, about 10 minutes more.

Carrots in a skillet with chicken.

Add the olives, garlic-zest mixture, cilantro, and 1 tablespoon of the lemon juice.

Seasonings over chicken in a skillet.

Stir to combine and adjust seasoning with salt, pepper, and more lemon juice, if desired.

Skillet of Moroccan chicken tagine.

Serve with couscous.

moroccan chicken tagine

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Moroccan Chicken Tagine

Chicken tagine is a traditional Moroccan dish of chicken pieces braised with spices, garlic, onion, olives, and preserved lemons. It’s company-worthy yet easy to throw together.

Servings: 4 to 6
Prep Time: 15 Minutes
Cook Time: 45 Minutes
Total Time: 1 Hour

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 pounds), trimmed of excess skin and fat (see note)
  • Salt and ground black pepper
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 1 large yellow onion, halved and cut into ¼-in-thick slices
  • 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
  • 1¾ cups chicken broth
  • 2 tablespoons honey
  • 2 large or 3 medium carrots, peeled and cut crosswise into ½-inch-thick coins
  • ½ cup Greek cracked green olives, pitted and halved (see note)
  • 2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro leaves

Instructions

  1. 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.
  2. 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; using tongs, 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.
  3. 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.
  4. Add the carrots, cover, and simmer until the chicken is cooked through and the carrots are tender-crisp, about 10 minutes more.
  5. 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.
  6. Note: 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. Cracked green olives are olives that have been ‘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.
  7. Make-Ahead: After you have completed the step of cooking the carrots, the dish can be refrigerated for up to 2 days. To serve, gently warm on the stove until the chicken is heated through, then proceed to the step where the olives and remaining ingredients are added.

Pair with

Nutrition Information

Powered by Edamam

  • Serving size: 1 chicken thigh
  • Calories: 367
  • Fat: 13 g
  • Saturated fat: 3 g
  • Carbohydrates: 14 g
  • Sugar: 7 g
  • Fiber: 2 g
  • Protein: 47 g
  • Sodium: 794 mg
  • Cholesterol: 215 mg

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.

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Comments

  • This recipe was a big hit.

  • Absolutely perfect recipe. Don’t change a thing. I did have preserved lemon which can also be made easily, just use in place of lemon zest/juice. The only thing I’d change is to make the skin removal optional, some people love fried crispy chicken skin, and some people just don’t. Thanks for a terrific recipe!

  • Jenn,

    Could we use dried apricots instead of carrots in this? I see that prunes have been added instead, but I wonder which of the flavours would go better with these spices?

    Joy

    • Hi Joy, that will work. (And if you’d like, you could use dried apricots in addition to the carrots instead of omitting the carrots.) Hope you enjoy!

  • Fabulous recipe used chickpeas rather than carrots

    • This recipe is a total winner! Many thanks.

  • This was delicious! Had boneless skinless thighs in freezer so that’s what I used. Turned out great! Served with couscous and steamed broccoli. Will definitely make again. Thanks for sharing!

  • Hi! Thank you for all your wonderful recipes. We have made your ‘Best Breakfast Pancakes’ today for my daughter’s 8th birthday, and she said that it was absolutely the best!
    Can I add skinless thighs instead of skin-on ones for the Moroccan tagine recipe?

    • So glad you like the recipes! Yes, you can get away with using skinless thighs here. Enjoy!

      • Jenn, would the steps and cooking time be about the same for skinless, boneless thighs? Thanks!

        • Hi Megan, You won’t need to modify the recipe much with the exception of cutting back the cooking time a bit. Hope you enjoy!

  • I made this last night for the family dinner, along with garlic mushroom cous cous and it was superb. We travelled around Morroco last year and this tasted authentic and so tasty, not too difficult to make either, highly recommended.

  • I made this for dinner and my family loved it. I had Aleppo spices so I didn’t have to add any additional spices. I also added a little more chicken stock half way through, but that was a choice.

    This will be easier to make again. The first time was a little tricky. They aren’t clear on how many regular lemons and or how many preserved lemons you need, I used both kinds and it
    was not to lemony.

    I would highly recommend this to any one who likes Moroccan dishes.

  • Absolutely delicious. Wonderful flavors and a real treat. Everyone enjoyed it and I will definitely make it again and again. Thank you.

  • Delicious! Great balance of flavours!

  • Holy moly was this delicious!! The kitchen smells amazing. This dish has the absolute perfect combination of spices. After dinner I said to my husband that I would order this dish at a restaurant. His reply was, “This IS restaurant quality!” The ultimate compliment. Would highly recommend this dish!

  • It came out great. We served it with couscous and roasted cauliflower. I made this yesterday with 5 thighs, no cilantro, and half the cayenne, otherwise followed the recipe. Definitely worth it!

  • I’m going to cook this with my mom and sister over video chat this week! I was only able to get ahold of boneless skinless thighs, any suggestions on how to modify the recipe to use those?

    • Hi Kate, How nice that you are doing that with your mom and sister! I don’t think you’ll really need to modify the recipe much with the exception of cutting back the cooking time a bit. Hope you enjoy!

    • Don’t cook them for the same amount of time as the recipe, boneless will cook faster.

  • added to our favorites list
    great with couscous

  • This hands down is one of the best dishes I’ve ever had. Anyone who doesn’t give this a 5/5 simply messed it up on their own account. Had my friends licking the pan (literally)! Thank you!

  • I excited about this recipe and to use our tagine! 8 chicken thighs is way too much for me and my husband, how would the cooking time change if we cut the recipe in half? Any other suggestions or adjustments we need to make if we only want to use 4 thighs? Thanks! Love your recipes!

    • Hi Maria, I’d just cut all the ingredients in half. Cook time should be about the same if not the slightest bit shorter. Hope you enjoy!

  • I cooked this with my 6 year old today. It was perfect. We’re stuck at home so one a week we ‘go’ to a different place by cooking a different dish and playing music from that country (courtesy of you tube!) this week it was Morocco, last week chicken pasaanda from India and on Mother’s Day we cooked Spanish paella with flamenco music. We all enjoy it, my husband and our four young children. If we can’t leave the house we’ll bring the flavours here. Lovely recipe! Thank you

    • What a great idea — glad the chicken was a hit! 🙂

      • This was delicious, the spices were perfect. Served over couscous with toasted naan bread. The chicken thighs were spot on even though it was on the stove longer than suggested (got distracted with a phone call).

  • I made this recipe tonight. Had to make a couple of variations because of my store cupboard.. corriander leaves and added pitted prunes. It was a great success. Also little cous cous so used Thai rice tossed in roasted cumin seeds… all worked well. The basic flavouring was as written and was really good!

  • Made this tonight. I added a couple of teaspoons of Harissa powder to boost up the heat- we like our food a little firey! Not 100% convinced about the carrots, although they were nice, next time will think of something else to try. Overall, very good.

    • — Jessie Ferguson
    • Reply
  • LOVE this recipe! I have made it with and without the olives and I will say it is better with olives — adds a depth of flavor and salt. Otherwise, the dish falls more on the sweet side, which I guess you could rectify with just adding more salt. Either way, my family loves it and it is in the rotation. Thank you!

  • Made this tonight we loved it! I have made a few of your dishes and loved them all. You are now the first site I search to look for a recipe. Thanks for putting this together.

  • Fantastic! Moves to our Top 20 list.

  • Incredibly delicious and flavorful! The whole family loved it. We didn’t have olives but it still came out great. This is a keeper!

  • Whole family liked this! I had most of the ingredients on hand, so followed the recipe pretty closely. My carrots wanted much more cooking (we wanted them soft in this dish), and I added prunes, which I overcooked – so next time, I will add the carrots at the beginning, and the prunes towards the end. I did cook it for more like 40 minutes. One nice thing – after it was cooked, but before we ate, I nipped over to a local Arabic market for some fluffy Afghani bread, and found preserved lemons in the bulk olive trays, so I added 1/2, chopped fine. Next time, I might add more, chopped less fine. Anyway, a great dish! Love Cooks Illustrated, and also your website, which I have ended up on many times 🙂

  • Another perfect recipe! I had all of the ingredients already and it was so easy and fun to make. YUM. Thank you.

    • — Robin Burnosky
    • Reply
  • Made this wonderful meal for dinner tonight. It will be another of my “must make this again” meals. It was delicious. Perfect for a cold winter night. Thanks, Jenn, for giving us such simple yet simply delicious recipes.

    • — Sue McCullough
    • Reply
  • I followed the recipe exactly. Delicious!

  • Very nice taste (I used a spice mix pre-made, but same). Made it, but I chicken was not tender after the instructed cooking times. I after-simmered it for 45 minutes extra. Beautiful.

  • This a tasty and different chicken recipe
    A bad review (1 star) said this recipe is not as good as others. So I looked up several others and they’re almost exactly the same, minus the honey. If you don’t like it sweet don’t add the honey but it’ll be a little acidic.

  • Can this be made with chicken breast? If so, what would the nutritional value be.
    Reason, I am on weight watchers and dark meat is higher in points than chicken breast.

    • Hi Linda, Although I think this is more moist with thighs, you can use bone-in chicken breasts(cut the breasts in half before cooking). When you add the chicken back to the pan, reduce the cooking time by about 5 minutes. Assuming 8 servings, each serving would have 478 calories and 24 grams of fat. Hope that helps!

  • This is an outstanding recipe. My whole family loved it. I doubled it, but next I double it I would only add 1.5 times the chicken broth instead of doubling the liquid.

  • Any recommendations for how to double this successfully? Thanks!

    • Hi Caroline, I think you can double this without a problem. You’ll either need large enough Dutch oven or pan to hold all the ingredients or to use two separate pans. Also, you’ll need to brown the chicken pieces in batches. Hope you enjoy!

      • Hi Jenn
        If I use a whole cut up chicken is the cooking time for the chicken the same?

        Thank you and thank you for all your recipes. Love love love

        • Hi Kathy, So glad you like the recipes! I think chicken pieces should take about the same amount of time as the thighs. Hope you enjoy!

  • A very nice and delicious chicken tagine! I loved it.

  • Hi there. Loving your recipes! I’d really like to make this for a crowd. Would it work with cubes of chicken rather than thighs (I like the idea of thighs but won’t be able to fit enough in my pan). Thank you, Claire

    • Hi Claire, I think it will work with cubes of chicken so long as you use thigh meat. Hope that helps!

  • Good recipe, but where are the preserved lemon in this recipe? I was eager to use my homemade preserved lemons only to find out you call for fresh lemons.

    • Yes, traditionally the dish calls for preserved lemons. That’s not an ingredient that most people have access to so I don’t use them, but they would be good here.

  • Wonderful! I had trouble fitting my chicken in, so I ended up pouring more chicken stock in, and then put it into the oven until the sauce thickened and thighs got nice brown color. It turned out great!

  • Hello.
    I really enjoyed this recipe and wanted to thank you.
    everything is very well explained in your recipe and it helped me a lot. 👍

  • Jenn, thank you for an incredible recipe to add to my repertoire. I made this for dinner tonight following your recipe and added dried apricots. The many levels of flavor were areal taste treat and everyone raved over the presentation with the colorful carrots, cilantro and a beautiful sauce. I ordered a tagine so that I could make it next week for a party. This recipe and your beef stew with balsamic vinegar are two of our favorites. Thank you!

  • What did I do wrong, I thought this was a bit boring 🙁 I did not add olives, as I really do not like them.

    • Hi Jacque, Sorry to hear you found this a bit boring. The olives add a lot of flavor and salt to the dish so I think that’s why it kind of fell flat for you.

  • Exquisite recipe. The best tajine I’ve ever tasted, anywhere.

  • We made this last night and we really liked it. My wife doesn’t like olives so I substituted dried apricots. Very good, it went into the recipe folder. Next time more spices!

    • — Brian Swarthout
    • Reply
  • I have also been to Morocco and this recipe is a wonderful example of cuisine from the area. All the spices, lemon, garlic, etc. made this dish a “keeper”. The only thing I did extra was cook down the sauce for 5 minutes to thicken it.
    This recipe is a perfect dish to make for company.

  • Have cooked and enjoyed many of your recipes over the last couple of years. I actually made my own version of this last night so when your email came in I was curious to see how it was made. The main difference between mine and yours is the chicken. I used skinless thighs and then rubbed the spice mixture all over, poked them all over with a fork and let it marinate for several hours. Then I browned it afterwards. I find it visually more appealing this way and the flavour penetrates the chicken. Keep up the good work.

  • After dinner, hubby exclaimed “thanks for dinner honey, that was really tasty!” And he’s not one to compliment easily, so thanks Jenn! 💙 I couldn’t find bone in, skin on chicken thighs at the store, but still wanted to cook this recipe, and it turned out great to use skinless/boneless! I love that we get leftovers with this dish too, makes life so much easier when you have a baby and wild toddler. Will be adding this recipe to my monthly rotation.

    • — Frenchie cooking mama
    • Reply
  • Amazing depth to the sauce in a very short time!! Really delicious and great use of chicken thighs. We tried it with couscous and felt like a dinner at a restaurant!

  • WOW! Made this last night for dinner, chucked in a few dried apricots and put it in the oven instead of simmering on the stovetop. It came out beautifully! My first chicken tagine and I was a bit dubious about how it would turn out but it was incredible. Love this recipe, Jenn!

  • This was a delicious meal and a different set of flavors, with lemon zest and olives giving lots of yummy zing to the sauce. The recipe is easy to follow, and the only change I would make is to cook the carrots longer, putting them in with the chicken pieces rather than only giving them 10 minutes. I think the recipe would work as well with bone-in breast pieces of chicken, and I will probably try that next time as I find thighs too fatty for my taste.
    Definitely will make this again!

  • Thank you for sharing this recipe.
    I just came back from my Morroccan vacation and was missing the delicious food. I made this and everyone thought it was excellent.

  • I have made chicken tagine in the past and it always came out amazing however i wanted to try a different recipe for chicken tagine and found this recipe and i was very disappointed. The flour amount in the recipe is way too much and the honey was also a problem for me since it made the recipe’s flavor too sweet. Overall the final product tastes and looks so different than an authentic chicken tagine looks and tastes like.

    • Which recipe did you like best?

      • — Jocelynne Broderick
      • Reply
  • Great! Made it ahead of time for company. Everyone loved it and went back for seconds. Really liked the way the spices, chicken essence and honey came together. Lovely, different, healthy and satisfying. I couldn’t find the olives specified and substituted Kalamata. I think next time I’ll just go with a meaty green olive instead b/c to me the Kalamata were a bit strong in contrast to the earthy, almost delicate sauce. I used no flour in order to make it GF and safe for guest with Celiac Disease–delicious and flour not missed. Another one for the permanent rotation. Thanks, Jenn!

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