Moroccan Chicken Prune Tagine

fx

Sun, 28 Mar 2010 10:25:04 GMT

Thanks Anne, and good luck!

Anne's Kitchen

Thu, 25 Mar 2010 17:16:56 GMT

Boy, that looks amazing! I"m making that tonight, can"t wait! Thanks for the step by step photos, looks very cool!

fx

Sun, 6 Jul 2008 14:43:48 GMT

Herebus, I"m glad the recipe worked for you, the chicken stock is great with the couscous, just make sure you don"t tell any Moroccan about the Parmesan, they might feel it out-of-synch although I"m sure it tasted fine!

Herebus

Sat, 5 Jul 2008 18:49:38 GMT

Another great recipe FX, the end result pretty darn good. Used some of the chicken stock with the Couscous and grated in some Parmesan.

fx

Sun, 11 May 2008 15:51:40 GMT

Rick, you are indeed a thorough home chef and I hope your mother found the dish to your liking! Moroccans use all sorts of fruits in their tagines, and figs and dates are definitely well in line with what"s in the Moroccan pantry!

fx

Sun, 11 May 2008 15:46:53 GMT

Martin, did your Moroccan chef use fresh prunes or dried ones? With the dried prunes they hold throughout cooking really well. Great idea to stuff them with broken almonds!

Rick

Sat, 10 May 2008 10:59:31 GMT

I made this last night, as a test before I cooked it for my Mother on Mother"s day. It turned out very good! While I was at the market buying ingredients, I saw some figs and dates next to the prunes. I thought they would go well with the dish, so I added those to the pot as well. I coated all the fruit in toasted sesame seeds and arranged it on the serving dish for a nice presentation. I don"t know if a Moroccan Grandmother would approve of such blasphemy, but I liked it!

Martin

Fri, 9 May 2008 10:06:24 GMT

Here"s a slight variation: A Moroccan chef taught me to stew the prunes separately, at least with a lamb and prune tagine (he felt the prunes get too mushy cooked with the meat). He also roughly crushes the almonds and stuffs the prunes with them.

If you use a real ceramic tagine, you usually get a tasty caramelized crust on the bottom. Unfortunately ceramic tagines are a pain to clean and are prone to breaking, which is probably why most Moroccans now use pressure cookers to make tagines.

fx

Thu, 8 May 2008 15:29:26 GMT

Luke, this is just a small Indian nonstick pan, I got it for a song. Nothing really fancy and you could use many other pans to the same effect, but it is sort of handy for photography!

fx

Thu, 8 May 2008 15:23:17 GMT

Malika, I am glad my dish stood up to your recollection of your Mum"s favorite dish! I am sure hers is better and the msemem must be terrific with this!

Luke

Thu, 8 May 2008 08:25:24 GMT

Hey, quick question, FX: what kind of pan is the one you toasted the almonds and sesame in? I don"t think I"ve ever seen something quite like that.

That said, amazing dish as usual. It goes without saying, you really have talent for this.

Malika

Wed, 7 May 2008 14:42:37 GMT

You know what?! This is my favorite dish! My mum makes it so well & serves it with homemade "msemem"!

fx

Wed, 7 May 2008 00:51:34 GMT

Sebastian, you are very right that such dishes are traditionally cooked in clay "tagine pots" that look like little volcanoes. I just couldn"t get around the weight-britleness conundrum when I came back from Morocco and decided to use whatever space was left in my luggage for the wooden dough bowl (gs��). And you can definitely cook a tagine in a regular pot. Perhaps that a well-used tagine pot from your mama would carry over some taste from previous dishes, but here it"d be a fight to prevent it from being washed with soap, so I don"t think I"d have gained much beyond better looks for my pictures.

fx

Wed, 7 May 2008 00:48:41 GMT

Luciano, most Moroccans actually fry their nuts in oil, to keep population growth in check I suppose. But to us Westerners whatever fat we can avoid is a good idea, so the non-stick pan comes in handy. I got this one in South India by the way, they use it for flatbreads. For the saffron I wish I could get my hand to the minute quantities produced right here in our Swiss mountains, but for now I get all my saffron from Spain through www.poivre.ch, an online dealer that caters to gastronomic restaurants throughout my country. For the chicken I know some people roast it in the oven before making stock but I didn"t. Thanks for visiting!

fx

Wed, 7 May 2008 00:45:10 GMT

Rick, good luck and make sure you get a good chicken! The toasting is key to bringing the sesame seeds and almonds" taste out.

Sebastian

Tue, 6 May 2008 18:58:16 GMT

I was surprised - and a bit disappointed :p - that you weren"t using the eponymous cooking ware for your tagine. I mean, cooking a recipe like that in the traditional, gentle, aroma-conserving way with the traditional equipment seems like it"d be just your thing... And surely someone who can get hold of a tandoor wouldn"t be challenged by acquiring a modest piece of earthenware? :o It"s a mystery... ;)

Nevertheless, your photos are stunning as ever - my mouth is starting to water when I look at them. I think I"ll have to get to my maroccan neighbour about trying this one out with a few more friends...

Luciano

Tue, 6 May 2008 15:54:19 GMT

another great recipe, FX and it looks quite easy to do, and I will do it next days.
apart the nonstick pan ( but "dove cavolo" can you dig this wondrous things ???)
just a question, the chicken, seems very clearduring the cooking,
you think is better to give it a little brown before the chicken stock, or it must stay
pale? about the zafron, what kind you use?, I always buy it a lot from Navelli, Abruzzo, I think one of the best in the world

Rick

Tue, 6 May 2008 15:04:17 GMT

I"ll be making this dish on Mother"s Day for my Mother and my wife. I"ll let you know how it turned out!

fx

Tue, 6 May 2008 13:38:03 GMT

Constantins, the carcass is not prime meat and I discarded it along with the vegetables, but I kept the chicken stock which was used both in the tagine and in later dishes that won"t be honored with a blog post! It really is a great way to use a chicken carcass.

fx

Tue, 6 May 2008 13:37:01 GMT

Nathan, you are in for more surprises in the non-stick cookware chapter! This is real, high quality saffron threads, meaning the whole stigma, not some orange powder of suspicious origin. It"s the only way to buy saffron, otherwise most often you"ll be cheated with some concoction made with who knows what. You can use only a few threads, they go a very long way!

fx

Tue, 6 May 2008 13:33:45 GMT

Joanna, thanks for your kind comments! I have so many cookbooks, definitely not all are made equal and a favorite book list would be worth it. Now for your "book meme", I suppose I should choose an English-language book, right?

fx

Tue, 6 May 2008 13:27:21 GMT

Lyra you are right that proper chicken can be insanely expensive, perhaps you could do this with a different meat. I am told that quails are very cheap in Mexican grocery stores, otherwise a good rabbit maybe!

fx

Tue, 6 May 2008 13:19:45 GMT

Zorra, you"ll love this tagine, it"s really quite simple in fact, it doesn"t take much time. You should look into Moroccan baking, they have all sorts of flat breads that are very original and tasty!

mcavity

Mon, 5 May 2008 16:45:04 GMT

"    * #5
    * Posted by: constantins
    * On: 05/05/2008

Could you please tell us what you have done with the carcass and vegetables? It would be pity to chuck it."

Maybe he fed it to his cat!

constantins

Mon, 5 May 2008 12:55:11 GMT

Could you please tell us what you have done with the carcass and vegetables? It would be pity to chuck it.

ND

Mon, 5 May 2008 10:43:37 GMT

Non-stick cookware on FXCuisine.com?! Fascinating pan, though! Your saffron looks very different to mine�mine is kind of long, "gnarly" and stringy� is there a difference?

Joanna

Mon, 5 May 2008 10:41:36 GMT

Hi Francois-Xavier - LOVE this tagine, and especially the prunes, so beautiful, yet quick to do.

I"ve tagged you for a meme - I would really like to know what cookery books you value, as your cooking is always so interesting, and of such high quality

Joanna

Lyra

Mon, 5 May 2008 10:07:14 GMT

Wow, another recipe that I can actually make. The only problem is, I can"t afford a good chicken these days (a nice free range, local chicken), and I am not going to buy a hormone filled cannibal chicken from Tysons. So I will have a wait a little while before I splurge on this one. It looks delicious though, and I love the presentation of the prunes.

zorra

Mon, 5 May 2008 09:25:10 GMT

I love Moroccan food! Your chicken makes me drooling.