Winter Chicken Tagine

A Tagine or Tajine is a North African dish and is also the name of the pot it is cooked in. I first discovered Tagine dishes, believe it or not, in St. Paul, Minnesota at a small restaurant there. They are rich, delicious comfort food dishes with spices, vegetables, chicken, lamb, fish, or beef. Because the major religion in this part of the world is Muslim, you won’t find a lot of pork Tagine recipes. I can’t say that there are a lot of rules for Tagines. My interpretation of them is that they are a one pot dish and that dish should be covered. The traditional Tagine is a thrown and kiln baked clay pot. Since I don’t have a true Tagine style pot, I used a stoneware set from Pampered Chef that I’ve had for years. Others use terracotta flower pots.

The Tagine started with smoke roasting carrots, onions and turnips with salt and pepper. Lemon juice, lemon peel, parsley, cumin, garlic, paprika, cyanne, ginger and dill were added to the roasted veggies along with two chicken leg quarters.

I call it Winter Chicken Tagine because of root veggies used in the dish. Everything was then covered and cooked at about 400 degrees. I used my Big Green Egg smoker/grill with the Plate Setter in place for indirect cooking.

About 45 minutes under the covered dish was about all it took to fully cook the chicken through. The flavors were amazing. This was probably one of my top 5 all time creations.