You probably already know when you read my blogs I prepare my diners ahead for the week. Normally Sunday is my cooking evening. Depending on what I have in store and what I am up to I start preparing. This is Orange Moroccan Chicken Tajine is of my favorites too; spicy, sweet and with a bite. The inspiration for this dish comes from my trip to Marrakesh Morocco. Here they use a lot of tajines and that is where I bought the green/blue tajine used below. Check this Moroccan Chicken Tajine in this blog, but also my healthy delicious other recipes in my other blogs. Bon appétit!!!!
Orange Moroccan Chicken Tajine: What ingredients do you need for 3/4 diners?
- 50 minutes of your time
- Casserole or Stew pan
- Frying pan
- Optional: Tajine
Ingredients Chicken Tajine
- Chicken breast: 400 gr cut into small parts, I mean 2 by 2 cm or so….
- Carrot: one big carrot cut into small parts
- Bell pepper/Paprika: two yellow or orange ones, cut into small parts
- Chickpeas: 1 can of 400 gr, let the water out of the can
- Sweet potato: 1 big clean and cut into small parts
- Red onions: 2, cut into small pieces
- Garlic: 3 cloves cut in very small pieces
- Dried apricots: 150 gr, cut in half
- Almonds: 100 gr, roasted
- Olive oil: 3 tablespoons
- Water: ±300 ml hot water
- Optional: Couscous
Herbs for Chicken Tajine
- Coriander: 3/4 tablespoons, cut the leaves without the steels
- Salt: 1 teaspoon
- Black pepper: 1 teaspoon
- Coriander seed: 1 teaspoon
- Ras el Hanout: 2 teaspoons
- Curcuma: 1 teaspoon
- Cayenne pepper: 2 teaspoons (if you don’t like it spicy, do one less)
- Chicken bouillon: 1 block
As you can see I didn’t prepare the couscous in this instance. I try not to eat too many carbohydrates in my daily food, so I skipped them in this meal. You can prepare the couscous together with this recipe if you want.
How to make Orange Moroccan Chicken Tajine?
Start cutting all the ingredients like described above. Small parts is like 2,5 by 2,5 cm, for all the ingredients, onions and garlic much smaller of course. Heat up the stew pan/casserole with the olive oil. Fry the chicken breast, union and garlic together till they get brown. Then add the vegetables: carrot, sweet potato and bell pepper/paprika. Fry for another 2 minutes or so. Then add the hot water and the following herbs to the stew: coriander seeds, ras el hanout, curcuma, cayenne pepper, chicken bouillon, salt and pepper. Stir till everything is mixed ups and let it stew with the cover on top of the stew. Let it stew for about 20-25 minutes on a low fire, stir in between for a couple of times.
In the last 10 minutes you add the chickpeas, dried apricots and the fresh coriander, not all coriander leave some for decoration on top. Taste if you think you need to add more spices. If you still need to roast the almonds in the frying pan do it now, by roasting them you get the crispy bite.
From my travels I bring souvenirs so I can use them back home to get the holiday feeling. During my travels I get inspired by the cooking and use the herbs from the countries I have been to. See my blog on souvenirs. In the picture on top you can see the Tajine I bought in Marrakesh, Morocco.
Prepare the plates (with or without the couscous) or use the Tajine like me, to show a Moroccan style dinner. On top of the stew you add the coriander and almonds.
If you eat the meal the next day, you will found out that it taste even better; the herbs have the time to get into the vegetables and chicken!!
أكل لذيذ or Bon appétit!
