Another Algerian Chicken with Olives and Preserved Lemons Recipe

A tagine of chicken with olives and preserved lemons isn't a recipe so much as a list of primary ingredients that go into a range of braised, stewed or baked dishes with seemingly endless variations. I used manzanilla olives for this reipce and I roasted it in the oven.

This is "a weeknight after a long day at work" tagine. Have I mentioned already that I work 12 hours a day? Some days up to 18 hours? I have no desire, energy or the time to spend slow cooking a tagine after a long day at work.

The prep time for this recipe is about 10-15 minutes, preheat the oven while putting all the ingredients into the dish, pop it in the oven, baste twice and your done. While the chicken dish is cooking I usually help my daughter with her French homework or check soccer scores on the internet.

I served this tagine with a round, leavened bread that I bought at an Armenian bakery (the best baguette I have found in Los Angeles is at an Armenian store in Glendale and I'm including all the so-called artisanal bakers I've tried in L.A.), a green salad and a chocolate cake I bought at Trader Joe's for dessert.

Tomorrow I'm filming a foodcast about the long, slow method of cooking in a conical tagine. I like to offer a variety of cooking methods because that's how I cook. I don't starve myself because I don't have 5 hours to cook a tagine like my Aunt Farida did on our family farm in Setif.

Ingredients below

1 whole chicken cut in half

Ingredients for sauce

1/2 cup chopped tomatoes (use fresh or canned)

2 quarter pieces of preserved lemon finely chopped

1/4 cup manzanilla olives, coarsely chopped

2 tablespoons flat leaf parsley

1 pinch saffron

1-2 teaspoons ras el hanout (optional)

Ground black pepper

Salt (add in two steps, sprinkle onto chicken at the beginning of cooking and add more to the sauce if needed at the end of cooking. The lemons and olives will give off brine during cooking so don't salt the chicken too much)

Add 1 1/2 cups water

Brush chicken with olive oil two times while cooking, cook until done.

I'm not giving cooking times or temps here. I'm working on a longer post about chicken roasting temps. But I really don't think I'm leaving you hanging. For Algerian baked chicken dishes it's usually about lower temps, lots of basting and moist heat.

Comments

[Maria Lizet]

In the picture for Another Algerian Chicken with Olives and Preserved Lemons, it looks like there is something white finely chopped. Is that the preserved lemon? Just wanted to make sure because it looks like onion or garlic and the ingredients in this recipe do not state that. Thanks

[jilal]

Salut zadi et bon retour au blogging..j'ai oublier de te dire que moi aussi je travail dans la restauration mais je ne suis pas cuisinier..visite le lieu de mon travail
http://buddhabar.com
je suis dans l'un des restos du groupe george V à paris je trouve que la italienne ressemble etrangement à la spécialité algerienne.
greetings from paris.