Chicken Tagine with Almonds & Saffron

For FND this week, I decided to go Moroccan. I was going through our stack of cookbooks when I came across The Moroccan collection. I don't even know whose this belong to but looking at all the pictures of tagines, I was inspired to do one.

At the heart of Moroccan cooking is the tagine slaoui, a shallow round bottom dish with a lid that looks like a Chinese coolie's hat. It allows the tagine to be cooked over slow heat without drying out.

Well since I don't have one & neither do I think that I'll able to find one for our induction stove. I'll just have to use my good old regular pot. The result, the dish turned out okay but not great. It was just not flavorful enough. Could this have been because I didn't use a tagine slaoui ?

Chicken tagine with almonds & saffron
serves 4
extracted from The Moroccan Collection

2 Tbsp olive oil
4 large chicken breasts (I used chicken leg)
2 onions, finely chopped
2 celery sticks, finely chopped
2 small carrots, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, crushed
150ml chicken stock
large pinch of saffron threads
50g almonds, grounded
salt & pepper
roughly chopped coriander to garnish

1. Heat oil in casserole. Add the chicken & brown evenly. Transfer to kitchen towel to drain.

2. Fry onions, celery, carrots & garlic gently for 5-7 mins until lightly coloured. Add stock & saffron. Stir in the almonds, season with salt & pepper & bring to a boil. Return the chicken to the casserole & add enough water to almost cover. Heat to simmering point & then cover tightly & cook gently for 30-40 mins until the chicken is cooked.

3. Remove the chicken. Boil the cooking liquid to reduce it to right consistency & flavour (I boiled it for a further 30 mins). Scatter over the coriander leaves & serve.