19th
Chicken Tagine with Fennel and Olives
Lately, I’ve been running out of cooking inspiration. Whenever that happens, I head over to Tastespotting to break the spell. Scrolling through, I found a recipe for chicken tagine. I had read about tagines recently in Cathy Erway (of Not Eating Out in NY)’s book, so I was very intrigued. I searched around some more until I found this recipe on Epicurious. Ever since I joined the Park Slope Food Coop, I’ve been challenging myself to cook and eat vegetables that are relatively foreign to me. One of these veggies is fennel, and this recipe gave me an excuse to finally buy it! FYI, I’ve never had tagine before, so I have no idea how authentic this tastes. Probably not on the dot, especially since it’s so quick and easy, but maybe it comes close?
I decided to go with bone-in chicken thighs. For some reason, a family pack of chicken thighs rings up as “CHICKEN THING” at my local grocery store. I tossed the chicken with cumin, paprika, cayenne pepper, and kosher salt. I doubled the amount of spices, as recommended by some of the recipe reviewers, but I probably ended up tripling the cayenne pepper. I’m a Korean who loves a spicy kick.
Browning chicken in a skillet.
Here’s the fennel! I wonder if there is any use for the stalk. I love the anise-y smell.
Sautéing the fennel before adding back the chicken thighs with chicken broth and lemon juice.
The recipe calls for green olives, but I already had some kalamata olives in the fridge. Toss these in after the chicken is cooked through.
Turn off the heat after 5 minutes. Stir in the cilantro and season with pepper and salt as desired.
Voilà! I will definitely be making this recipe again, maybe with some whole wheat curried couscous.
