Chicken Tajine with Swiss Chard and Fennel Recipe
Chicken Tajine
The wonderful thing about Moroccan Cooking and all tajines is, there’s never any talk about side dishes. It’s all aboard in a pot! We cook everything together. So it is no wonder we eat our veggies. The results are a fabulous Chicken Tajine, with half the work and double the flavor. I’m keeping the result way understated. You end up with the best chicken tajine: it looks and tastes like you slaved on it, so it will be a double triumph. This is true for this dish and all other tajines. Get ready for the heady aromas of this chicken tajine as it cooks, releasing its wonderful aromas of preserved lemons, olives and fennel.
I just love Swiss chard!
Love its bold briny flavors. Delicious and nutritious. The mixed color bunches are particularly beautiful. And with swiss chard, nothing ever goes to waste. Use the leaves for the Tajine, and the reserved ribs for Swiss chard rib salad.
I have put together some of my favorite flavors in this chicken tajine. Fennel, olives, tomatoes, swiss chard: How can you miss with this incredible lineup?
Keep preserved lemons on hand!
I just couldn’t be without them. They brighten up and perfume so many dishes! But in this dish, just in case you don’t have it, just keep going!
Ingredients
- 12 o 16 pieces chicken with skin and bone on: thighs, drumsticks, half breasts
- 2 bunches Swiss chard, leaves only (reserve the ribs for soup or Swiss Chard Rib Salad), roughly sliced
- 1 large head fennel, cut in thin wedges
- 4 plum tomatoes, diced
- 1/2 cup pitted olives (nicoise or oil-cured)
- 1/2 preserved lemon, skin only, thoroughly rinsed and minced (settle for 2 thick-skinned lemons, sliced thin)
- 2 teaspoons turmeric
- 2 good pinches saffron
Instructions
Place all ingredients in a large wide bottom pot, with about 3 cups water. Give all ingredients a good stir with a large spoon. Do not be alarmed by the volume of the Swiss Chard, it will get reduced to a handful in no time. Bring the pot to a boil. Reduce the flame to medium-high, and cook covered one hour. Check mid-cooking to make sure you have enough liquid in the pot, adding a little if necessary. Transfer the chicken and all vegetables to a serving platter. Check the cooking liquid in the pot. If you have too much liquid, turn the flame all the way up, and reduce the liquid until t thickens to the consistency of maple syrup. Pour this sauce over the chicken. Serve hot.
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