Chicken and lemon tagine with cracked green olives

Last night we were in Greece, tonight Morocco and a fascinating dish it was too had my doubts about this one though, right from the start and up until we actually sat down to eat, did not think we were going to enjoy this at all, but Jo and I, have both been pleasantly surprised, it was awesome!

The chicken was so tender and very yummy with olives and lemon flavouring, again fresh herbs, flat leaf parsley and coriander and on top of all that slivered almonds to give a little bit of crunch.

Click on photo to see bigger version!

The method of cooking the chicken was different, basically poaching it for most of the journey and then finishing off under a hot grill to crisp the skin up, it worked fantastically, the meat fell off the bone, yet was not dry at all. The other interesting part of the dish was the couscous, I have tried couscous before, but have never cooked it, nor had any idea how too, but it was as easy as boiling some stock and pouring it over the top. I used stock I prepared last week, it in itself adds heaps of flavour, but the couscous really come in to its own once the sauce from the casserole was spooned over it, very, very morrish! Fortunately for me Jo does not get into chewing her meat off the bone, which is fantastic for me because it really is the best bit!

This recipe was the other one I shopped for yesterday, I found it on the Gourmet Traveller site, see the link below if you would like to try it. I should mention though I think there is an error in the ingredients list, it states 900 grams of olives, I used 90 grams and that was more than enough for my liking.

I asked Jo which meal she preferred between this and George Calombaris’s Kotopoulo tava, surprisingly she chose tonight’s meal, whilst I went for George’s, but it was a very hard choice to make, I’d be more than happy to sit down to either again!

http://gourmettraveller.com.au/chicken-and-lemon-tagine-with-cracked-green-olives.htm
 
Should go to the effort of making this dish, I hope you enjoy as much as we did!