Moroccan chicken with preserved lemons - 1 month in the making

Moroccan Chicken with Preserved Lemons

1 month in the making

This is the dish I wanted to cook using lemon preserves but when I could not get any I ended up making my own.  It was well worth the month I had to wait for the lemon preserves to be ready before I could finally make this dish.

Moroccan Chicken

Ingredients
1 cinnamon Stick
1 tsp whole black peppercorns
1 1/2 tsp cumin seeds
1 1/2 tsp paprika
1 tsp chilli flakes
1/4 tsp whole cloves
3 tbs Welsh Rapeseed Oil (Blodyn Aur) or olive oil
6 cloves of garlic chopped
2 tsp of fresh grated ginger
2 bay leaves
1 pinch of saffron
1 free range chicken cut into 8 pieces
pinch of Welsh Anglesey Sea Salt
1 medium onion coarsely chopped
1 preserved lemon (see recipe in my blog) http://searchofgoodfood.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/lemon-preserves.html
chicken stock

In a heavy based frying pan, over a medium heat, toast the cinnamon, cumin, paprika, chilli flakes, whole cloves until they start to smoke. Remove from the pan and grind to a powder.

Heat spice mix gently until they smoke

Cut the free range chicken into 8 pieces

Place the chicken with the spice mix, oil, garlic, ginger, 3 bay leaves, and saffron in a bowl mix all together and allow to marinade for a couple of hours.

Put a little bit of oil in the tagine and place over a medium heat.  Add the onions and fry until tender, about 7 to 8 minutes. Add the chicken, a pinch of salt and marinade to the tagine. Mix one 1 cube of chicken stock with a cup of boiling water and add to the tagine. Remove the lemon preserves from the jar, discard flesh and cut rind into strips and add to tagine.

Cover the tagine with a lid and either place on the hob over a medium heat for about 30 minutes or, as I prefer to do, place in the oven on 180C for 1 hour. When ready serve preferably with couscous