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Rabat – Morocco’s cuisine has earned international applause throughout the years thanks to the lengthy lists of renowned, tasty dishes that you can craft with simple and few ingredients. Among these is Morocco’s chicken tagine with daghmira, a yummy thick onion sauce.
The taste and seeming complexity in a Moroccan tagine might confuse cuisine enthusiasts, wondering what a chef used to make the dish as delicious as it looks. Crafting the perfect tagine depends on how desperate you are to eat the meal, because the more you make it with love the better you will enjoy it.
Today’s recipe will be for chicken tagine with daghmira, one of my favorites. It is a delight that Moroccans present during special events, including weddings.
The dish also frequently appears in Moroccan meals to provide balanced nutrition.
If you have ever been to Morocco and tried chicken tagine at a restaurant, and you are desperate to try it at home, trust me—it is doable.
Prepare your chicken the Moroccan way
When one hears the word tagine, they might believe it is necessary to have the traditional, cute Moroccan tagine pot to make it happen. Well, not to lie to you, such food is certainly delicious when cooked in a tagine.
I guarantee you, however, that your tagine will also taste great if you use a pressure cooker as long as you use the correct ingredients and follow the procedure the Moroccan way.
Your ingredients are:
1 chicken (1 Kg)
½ pickled lemon or lime
1 teaspoon of black pepper
1 teaspoon of ginger
1 teaspoon of turmeric
1 teaspoon of fresh saffron
1 teaspoon of smen (Moroccan fermented butter)
7 tablespoons of cooking oil
2 big chopped onions
In a bowl, add half of each spice, 1 tablespoon of the oil, and half of the smen, but add the full pickled lemon or lime.
You can check the link below to explore how Moroccans prepare pickled lime at home if it isn’t available where you live.
Read also: How to Make Preserved Lemons Moroccan-style
Pickled lemons in Morocco are usually salty and added in certain dishes for a sour-salty flavor.
You should cut your chicken into several parts so the ingredients get into the meat for the best flavor.
Also, make sure your chicken is clean but fresh, but not slaughtered the same day you cook it.
Take the spice and oil mixture, cover your chicken with it, and leave it to rest for 10 or 20 minutes so the ingredients get into the skin.
Now put your chopped onions in a tagine pot or a pressure cooker and add the remaining ingredients. Do not add any more salt since pickled lime and smen are already salty.
Put your chicken on the top of the onions and add one small cup of water. You don’t need a lot of water, as your onion will already be adding watery juice to your tagine.
When you feel your chicken and onion are cooking well on light heat, add four tablespoons of cooking oil.
Close your tagine or pressure cooker for about 30 to 35 minutes. If you are using a tagine, it is easier for you to check on your dish and see if water is still there — if the tagine looks dry, you’ll need to add a bit more. In the pressure cooker, leave it closed for 30 minutes and open it right after.
Daghmira
After 30 minutes, remove your chicken from the tagine and keep the onions inside to get daghmira.
Add two more tablespoons of cooking oil to the onions and mix it while cooking until you get a thick onion paste that has absorbed most of the water.
Turn off the heat and put your chicken on top again.
You can adorn your tagine with green olives and pickled lime pieces.
In Morocco, especially at weddings, we use a half-empty pickled lemon rind to add harissa (Moroccan hot sauce) to complete the decoration and also add flavor.
