Hello my loves,

Before we get into the (chicken) meat of today’s newsie, I bring you breaking knitting news: THE SWEATER IS COMPLETE!!!!! Yes, you heard it here first, I have triumphed! My first-ever sweater project is done. And I must say, I’m rather proud of it. It’s come up so beautifully, and is now all ready to keep my beloved fiancé handsome and cosy and warm next winter, just as he should be. I’m now dancing impatiently on the spot waiting for the wool shops to reopen so I can select the perfect skeins for my next project. I'll be sure to keep you posted 🧶.

And now, to the gorgeous recipe that’s the focus of today: a delicious one-pot wonder of chicken with preserved lemon and olives. Quite some years ago, I worked in a design agency which was peppered with fellow foodies. When I left, I was gifted with an upmarket piece of serious food-person equipment: a beautifully crafted tagine. If you’re not familiar with the tagine, it’s cooking vessel found in North Africa and the Middle East, whose identifying feature is a distinctive conical lid. The delicious dishes that are created within it are also called tagines. They’re somewhat similar to casseroles but feature all manner of gorgeous Middle Eastern and African flavours – think spiced lamb with prunes, eggs and almonds, or tender fish with harissa, coriander and parsley. It was a very generous gesture from a lovely group of colleagues which then proceeded to sit unused in my Special Cooking Things cupboard for well over a decade.

I don’t know why it took me 15 years to finally use it. It really was gorgeous, and it’s so unlike me not to immediately fall on a new area of cooking and explore every single corner of it. But somehow, it just wasn’t quite time. Until it was. A few months ago, I was rifling through my recipe book shelves, and the tiny booklet that had come with the tagine fell out onto the floor. As it lay at my feet, I realised I was finally there: the tagine was getting a run. And what a run it was. I loaded that baby with all manner of flavoursome concoctions, which produced many delicious results. One of the stand-outs was a juicy delight of fat chicken pieces spiked with tangy preserved lemon and salty little olives. And it is that recipe that I bring you today.

You don’t need a tagine to make it, you can do it in any casserole dish, or even just a large pot with a lid. You do need preserved lemons and verjuice, both of which are pretty readily available in supermarkets or grocers these days. As lemon season draws to a close, you may even be tempted to preserve your own! That’s a post for another day, but it’s not very difficult and the internet should be able to tell you all you need to know. And so my loves, I present to you my recipe for one-pot chicken with preserved lemon and olives. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did 💛.

One-pot chicken with preserved lemon and olives

Serves 6

Ingredients

15g butter
15ml olive oil
1.5kg free range chicken pieces, skin on and preferably bone in (see notes below)
3 brown onions, sliced
1 ½ teaspoons dried ginger
1 teaspoon saffron
1 teaspoon dried turmeric
180ml verjuice
½ cup preserved lemon, chopped
Half a bunch of parsley, chopped
1 cup olives, stones removed (see notes below)
2-3 cups water
A pinch of salt
Black pepper
A bunch of fresh coriander, chopped

Melt the butter together with the olive oil in a large casserole dish, tagine or pot. Add the chicken pieces and brown them well on both sides. You may need to do this in two batches depending on the size of your pot. Once browned, remove the chicken and set aside. Add the onions to the pot and cook gently over a medium-low heat until soft and golden. This will take around 10 minutes, so you'll need a little patience here, but it will be more than worth it. Once your onions are unctuous, add the ginger, saffron and turmeric, and cook for 1 minute. Turn the the heat up a little and add the preserved lemon and parsley, then stir for a further minute. Add the verjuice, and let it bubble for another minute. Then add the chicken, olives, water, salt and a few grinds of pepper. Bring to the boil, then lower the heat to a simmer and cook, covered, for 20-30 minutes, until the chicken is cooked through. Top liberally with the coriander before serving. I like to ferry this to the table in the dish it was cooked in, as it looks lovely with the vibrant green of the fresh coriander against the golden chicken. This is delicious served with bread (a nice warm flatbread perhaps). Couscous or rice would also be delightful.

Notes

1. You can use any combination of chicken pieces that you’d like, but do try to get them on the bone, and with the skin on. Marylands would work beautifully, as would any combination of thighs/drumsticks/breasts that you’d like. I actually usually use a whole chicken that I cut up into pieces – so, two breasts, two thighs, two drumsticks and two wings. I realise that attacking a whole chicken is probably not something everyone is drawn to, but I’m just detailing the scenario to give you the idea of a potential chicken-piece mix.

2. You can use any olives you like – green, black or a mix of both. To remove the stones, press down on each olive with the flat side of your knife, just like you would to loosen the skin from a clove of garlic. This loosens the stone in the same way.

Love, Rachel xxx