Chicken Tagine with Preserved Lemon & Olives
A Moroccan classic: chicken slowly braised with saffron, ginger and onions until falling off the bone, finished with the bright, salty tang of preserved lemon and green olives. Fragrant, golden and made for mopping up with bread.
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Start your free weekContinue with free accessMarinate the chicken
In a large bowl, mix the garlic, ginger, turmeric, cumin, saffron water, half the olive oil, half the chopped herbs and a good pinch of salt and pepper. Add the chicken and rub the marinade in well. Leave for at least 15 minutes, or overnight in the fridge.
Soften the onions
Heat the remaining oil in a tagine or heavy casserole over medium heat. Add the grated onions with a pinch of salt and cook gently, stirring, for 10 minutes until soft and golden. The onions melt down to become the body of the sauce.
Braise slowly
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Add lemon and olives
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Finish and serve
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Marinate the chicken
In a large bowl, mix the garlic, ginger, turmeric, cumin, saffron water, half the olive oil, half the chopped herbs and a good pinch of salt and pepper. Add the chicken and rub the marinade in well. Leave for at least 15 minutes, or overnight in the fridge.
Soften the onions
Heat the remaining oil in a tagine or heavy casserole over medium heat. Add the grated onions with a pinch of salt and cook gently, stirring, for 10 minutes until soft and golden. The onions melt down to become the body of the sauce.
Braise slowly
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Add lemon and olives
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Finish and serve
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The Story Behind the Dish
A tagine is both a dish and the vessel it's cooked in: a shallow earthenware base topped with a tall, conical lid. Slow-cooking in clay pots has deep roots among the Amazigh (Berber) peoples of North Africa, and over the centuries Arab, Andalusian and Ottoman influences layered in saffron, ginger, cinnamon and the Moroccan love of sweet-savoury contrasts.
Chicken with preserved lemons and olives — known in Morocco as djaj mqualli — is one of the great classics of the imperial cities' kitchens, especially Fez. The lemons are packed in salt and their own juice for weeks until the peel turns soft, silky and intensely fragrant.
Today, tagines bubble over charcoal in market stalls and home kitchens across the country, each family with its own balance of spice.
⭐ Why It's Famous
This tagine captures what makes Moroccan cooking special: gentle, layered spicing rather than heat, and the unmistakable perfume of preserved lemon — an ingredient that has spread from Moroccan kitchens to chefs worldwide.
💡 Fun Fact
The tagine's cone-shaped lid is a clever piece of engineering: steam rises, condenses on the cool upper walls and drips back down onto the food, so very little water is needed even for long cooking.
Fez & Marrakesh, Morocco
34.02°N, -5.01°W
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