Tajin - Moroccan Dish with Chicken

Tajine:

Recently i was traveling through Morocco, and inspired of the old traditional dishes. I had to do it myself. In the picture on the top there are all the fresh ingredients i used for the chicken tajine.

What i learnd quite fast, when you cook in morocco it takes hours, so take your time for this you need 6 hours.

Ingredients:

Olive oil

2 onions

6 gloves of garlic

2 tomatoes

3 carrots

2 zuccini

2 green chilis

3 potatoes

2 handful of peas

10 prunes

pumpkin

5 spoons of chickpeas

1 whole chicken (with liver, heart and kidney)

fresh parsley and coriander

1 inserted lemon (you can use fresh lemonjuice instead)

Tajine mixture of spices (Cayenne pepper, turmeric, coriander, cumin, black cumin, pepper, fenugreek seeds, pepper, allspice, mustard seeds, chillies, ginger, fennel, garlic, cardamom)

olives and bread to serve.

For cooking you definitely need a steaming pot.

First you chop all the vegtables in not too tiny pieces because you will cook them for a long time, you dont want them to fall apart.

Then cut the chicken and put a lot of the tajine mixture of spices, salt and oil on the chicken. Let the chicken rest for about 2 hours so it is able to absorb the taste.

Now cover the ground of the steaming pot with fresh parsley and put the chicken pices(withot the offals) on top, like on the next picture.

Boil up the water, and start steaming the chicken. (with lid) This will take at least 3 hours better 6;).
Check every hour, if there is still water in the pot, if not add more.

Start with this section after 4 hours of steaming the chicken.


First sear the chopped onions, garlic, offals, one of the chilis and tajine spices for about 5 minutes n oil.
Then add some chicken soup from the steaming pot and boil it.

Add the vegtables in this order, potatoes, carrots, tomatoes, pumpkin, zuccini.

It depends how you want the vegtables i added them 30 minutes before the chicken was finished.
You also can add them 1 hour before. Only the pumpkin should no be cooked longer than 15 minutes.

Best serving in a traditional Tajine pot with fresh coriander, olives, prunes, fresh bread and Moroccan Tea.

Enjoy!!!

Chickensoup

Chickensoup has a long history and is known for curative powers.
This is because of the chalk which is released when cooking chicken bones for over an hour.
Also all the vegtables give you power and the warm soup heats up your body to fight more easily against the illness.
Fresh parsley is full of vitamin C.  
This is also a Ayurvedish dish when combinating this 5 ingredients: ginger, curcuma, soyasouce, chickenbones and onions

Chickensoup  - buena por el salud - the best thing against your flue

a piece of celery

4 carrots

2 parcley roots

green onion

1 onion

2 garlic clove
2 slices of ginger
2 laurel leaves
2 juniper berrys
bunch of fresh parsley leaves 

0,5 - 1 kg chicken parts, chicken bones, a whole chicken
2 liters of water
50ml of soyasouce
half spoon of Curcuma 

• first sear the chopped onion and the garlic a little bit in olive oil

• add the vegtables and sear it

• add the chicken and sear it aswell until its golden

• add 2 liters of water, the laurel leave and the juniper berrys, cook this for at least 1 and a half hour

• then sieve it and your soup is ready, 

• when you want to eat it, add salt and grounded pepper soyasouce

• serve it hot and with parsley