Tagine of Chicken & Lemon

I love my tagine, it's the best little piece of earthenware ever. This recipe is really simple and I just kinda winged it. It's citrusy, fragrant, fruity, and flavorful. If you don't have a tagine for this dish, a covered casserole dish or even an open Pyrex dish will be fine, but a tagine is great for circulating the moisture and flavor, and gets points for presentation. I also used some plum conserve that Elise gave me, which added a nice fruity sweetness to the dish, but use what you have. The recipe is adaptable and quite forgiving.

This recipe is a new favorite of mine, and one that will be revisited again and again.

Tagine of Chicken & Lemon
What You'll Need...
2 teaspoons of cinnamon
2 teaspoons of black pepper
2 teaspoons of ground ginger
1 teaspoon of turmeric
2 tablespoons of olive oil
2 onions, chopped
2 chicken breasts
1 cup of chicken broth
1 lemon or preserved lemon
some chopped prunes, dried apricots, plum conserve, or a few spoonfuls of raisins (whatever of these you have, just toss in a small amount of it, I used about 3 spoonfuls of conserve)

What You'll Do...
1) Preheat oven to 350 F. Rub the chicken with the cinnamon, black pepper, and ground ginger, then let sit for an hour, covered, in the fridge.

2) Place the olive oil and turmeric in a saucepot or skillet, mix, and heat over medium high heat. Place the chicken breasts in and sear on each side to seal in the juices. The chicken should brown a bit and be very fragrant. About 2-3 minutes.

3) Place the chicken in the tagine or other oven safe dish to rest. Toss in the onions into the sauce pot or skillet so they can get a very quick sear and soak up the rest of the turmeric and oil. About 30 seconds.

4) Place in the tagine over the chicken. Add the chicken broth and fruit. Place a few slices of lemon over it, and cover. Place in the oven for 35 minutes.

5) Let sit for 5 minutes to cool a bit, then serve with rice or couscous.