Our chef's preserved lemon tagine
By Charlotte Schoeters · · 7 min read
Our chef has cooked at the riad since 2019. She has never written this recipe down. What follows is my best attempt at transcription, built from two hours of watching and several months of failed attempts in my Antwerp kitchen.
Our chef comes from the medina. She has three children and has been cooking at the riad since 2019. She makes this tagine from memory, adjusting by smell and touch, never measuring anything. She is faster and more accurate than any recipe can fully describe.
The version below is my transcription, built from two hours watching her work and then several months of failed attempts in my Antwerp apartment. The gap between what I saw and what I could replicate is the gap where a lifetime of cooking lives.
Ingredients (serves 4–6)
- 1 whole chicken, jointed, or 6–8 bone-in thighs
- 2 preserved lemons, skin only, rinsed of excess salt
- 200 g green olives, pitted
- 2 large onions, very finely grated
- 4 garlic cloves, crushed to a smooth paste
- 1 tsp ground ginger
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- ½ tsp turmeric
- ½ tsp black pepper
- 1 generous pinch of saffron threads, steeped in 3 tbsp of hot water for at least 20 minutes
- 3 tbsp good olive oil
- A small bunch of fresh coriander and flat-leaf parsley, tied together
- Salt to taste (the preserved lemons are already very salty, so add carefully)
Method
Mix the grated onion, garlic, ginger, cumin, turmeric, black pepper and olive oil in the base of a heavy pot or tagine. Add the chicken pieces and turn to coat thoroughly. Cover and leave to marinate for at least one hour. Overnight produces a noticeably different result.
Pour the saffron water over the chicken. Add enough plain water to come halfway up the sides of the meat, approximately 250 ml depending on the width of your pot. Place the herb bundle in the centre. Bring to a simmer over medium heat, then reduce to very low. Cover and cook for one hour, turning the chicken once halfway through.
Add the preserved lemon skin, cut into strips or left in quarters, and the green olives. Continue cooking uncovered for 20 to 30 minutes until the sauce reduces to a thick, oily, intensely flavoured gravy.
Taste before salting. The preserved lemons will have already seasoned the dish substantially; you may need no additional salt at all. Discard the herb bundle.
Serve directly from the tagine with a large amount of bread. Tear and dip. No cutlery necessary or appropriate.
On preserved lemons
The lemons our chef uses have been preserved for at least a year, sometimes two, in salt and their own juice. They are a completely different product from the jars marketed as preserved lemons in most supermarkets. If you can find a North African grocer, buy theirs. If not, make your own at least three months before you plan to cook this dish.
On patience
Our chef told me the key to this tagine is patience. She meant it literally: low heat, long time. But she also clearly meant it in every other sense. Forty-five minutes of impatient cooking will produce something edible but flat. An hour and a half of genuine low heat produces the sauce that guests eat in complete silence, which is the correct response to it.
We serve this on the fourth evening of every retreat, preceded by an afternoon at the hammam. The sequencing is intentional: a softened body receives food differently.