Thursday, June 16, 2011

Chicken Tagine with Dates and Honey

I love savoury food with sweet flavours. This tagine is a great example of how great sweetness is with savoury food. The sauce in this tagine is just so luscious and rich. I've made it a few times now and my husband and I both can't seem to get enough of it. I don't have a tagine yet so I've made do with a casserole. Can't wait to make it in a tagine. I'm sure it will taste even better. 
.
Recipe from MasterChef Cook Book Season 2.
.
Serves 4-6
Preparation: 25 minutes
Cooking time: 1 hour and 25 minutes
.
Ingredients 
3 teaspoon cumin seeds
3 teaspoon coriander seeds
2 teaspoon fennel seeds
12 cardamom pods, seeds removed
1 teaspoon black peppercorns
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
80ml (1/3 cup) olive oil
2 onions, finely diced
2 cloves garlic, crushed
4cm piece ginger, finely grated
2 long red chillies, seeded, finely chopped (I only used one)
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground tumeric
2 cinnamon quills
1kg chicken thigh fillets, each cut into 3 pieces
500ml (2 cups) chicken stock
10 fresh dates, pitted, chopped
80ml (1/3 cup) honey
35g (1/4 cup) silvered almonds, lightly toasted
Couscous, to serve
.
Method
1. Using a pestle and mortar, finely grind the cumin, coriander, fennel and cardamom seeds with the peppercorns and salt. Pass through a fine sieve. 
.
2. Heat the olive oil in a flameproof tagine, casserole or heavy based saucepan over low heat. Add the onions and cook for 3 minutes, then stir in the garlic, ginger and chillies and cook for 5 minutes or until soft.
.
3. Add the spice mixture, ground ginger, turmeric and cinnamon quills. Cook over low heat for 2 minutes until fragrant. Increase the heat to medium-high and add the chicken. Cook for 5 minutes each side, turning occasionally, or until light golden. 
.
3. Pour in the stock. Reduce the heat to low, cover and simmer for 50 minutes. Add the dates and honey and cook, uncovered for a further 10 minutes. Remove the chicken from the pan with a slotted spoon.
.
4. Increase the heat to medium-high and cook for 5 minutes or until the liquid has reduced. Return the chicken to the pan and add the almonds. Serve the tagine with couscous.

7 comments:

  1. yummo! I love using dates in cooking - they result in such a sweet sticky sauce!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Love the stickiness and sweetness of it! I eat dates often but it's the first dish I've cooked with dates in it. Definitely won't be my last. Yum!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Oh Yum. This looks great. It is definitely kissing my toast with vegemties ass for dinner. ha ha

    ReplyDelete
  4. I love sweetness with certain meats. And in tagines for certain! That looks so scrumptious! :D

    ReplyDelete
  5. OH.. yumm.. any leftovers? hahaha
    Looks delicious
    lee x

    ReplyDelete
  6. The title to this post had me swooning - this looks and sounds fabulous! I love tagines.

    ReplyDelete
  7. ooooh yum, I might have to try this with veggies!

    ReplyDelete

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...