Daniel Boulud’s Chicken Tagine Recipe (2024)

Wonderful colors and flavors! However, the cauliflower, after a 3 minute blanch and two 20 minute periods in the oven, was near disintegration. Were I to prepare this again, I would blanch for only a minute, brown the blanched florets, then add them at the last, along with the olives and tomatoes. Cauliflower's a delicate vegetable, and needs to maintain some texture to hold its own with the stronger flavors; a 20 minute simmer, after browning, would be more than enough to accomplish this.

Discovering that the key ingredient to this dish was the preserved lemon (no substitute will likely do), I took a page from Melissa Clark's playbook and squirted some fresh lemon juice over the plates after serving, which served to bring everything, including the spices, to life. Other tips include removing the skin from 4 to 6 of the thighs to avoid a fatty sauce, dispense with the blanching of the cauliflower and add it later, and add the olives earlier.

Fyi: To make preserved lemon. Get a mason jar... I use pint size. Cut the lemons in quarters but not all the way through. Pack as many as you possibly can in the jar. Squish them in then pack with lots and lots of kosher salt. I use Diamond brand. Tighten the lid and leave it for 3 weeks....You dont have to go crazy looking for them. Rinse the lemon before use and discard the pulp. The rind is softened wnd delicious. I use the lemon for lots of savory dishes...Hope this helps.

For those desiring to cut the spices down to 3T total (reduce by 4), here's the amounts in teaspoons: paprika 2 5/8; coriander 2 1/4; turmeric 1; ginger pwd 3/4; cardamom 3/8; cinnamon 1/2, garlic pwd 1/4; allspice 5/8.

This tagine is delicious, but is both time-consuming and labor-intensive, with many discrete steps. Make sure you create a mise en place beforehand starting, and have all pots on-hand so that you don't spend lots of time running around the kitchen.
I found it necessary to amp up the flavor and used more than 2Tb spice/3lb chicken. Note (as the recipe does not, but should) that the very-expensive spice mix results in 2-3 times as much spice as you need.

This is good -- but you can simplify it. For the spice I used a Baharat mixture that has the same spices but is a little more hot. In step 5 I added tomatoes and did not reduce sauce much. In step 6 I used lemon zest and the juice of one lemon. I think two preserved lemons would be too salty.
Also I used boneless chicken thighs, about 2 lbs, so cooking times a bit shorter. You have to use your judgement.
Anyway, delicious.

I've made this three times. Last night, I substituted leftover chicken--sauteed in oil with the spice rub--and used fresh lemons instead of the preserved lemons--reducing the added salt. This low calorie, healthy, and satisfying combination of lemon, tomatoes, cauliflower, green olives, and spices pleased my fussy husband's gourmet palate as well. This is a real winner and easy, week-night go-to recipe.

You only use the peal with the pulp removed and rinse the peal to remove the excess salt before cooking with preserved lemon.

Further to my last note on the cooking time for the chicken. Hey everyone, this recipe has misprints! If you go to the original article, "Marrakesh Express," as I did just now, you will find that it recommends 30 minutes + 30 minutes in the oven for step 6, not 20 + 20 as in this recipe.

I've made this three times already and love it. I have tweaked the recipe by using canned organic peeled whole tomatoes. I sequentially brown the chicken (using a whole chicken cut up) and cauliflower and onion separately. During roasting, I remove the breasts after about 30 minutes, and the dark meat after 45 minutes. The sauce and chicken are stored in the fridge to be eaten the next day to develop the flavors and make surface fat removal easier. I served this with Israeli couscous.

One of my all time favorites, now made many times. If you like things spicy, add a little hot paprika to the spice mixture. And I use the leftover spice mixture for everything from scrambled eggs or omelets to chickpeas. Costco stocks Castelverano olives.

I didn't have preserved lemons, so I zested two lemons and added it to the couscous while it cooked. It made a fragrant base for the tagine and we used the leftover couscous in a salad the next day.

Notes from my second time making this recipe-- Wait to preheat the oven, there is a lot of prep time, instead, I sweltered over a hot stove, unnecessarily so. Also, I agree with an earlier note, make less tagine spice mix, I use only one preserved lemon, and like dark purple olives mixed in with green-- I found Castelvetranos too hard.

This was a huge hit with some very fussy guests! I used boneless/skinless chicken breasts, used a 28 oz. can of diced tomatoes for the romas, and halved pimento-stuffed olives. I also microwaved the cauliflower to save some time. The flavors were great and the chicken was moist and tender.

There is NO WAY that this dish takes 75 minutes from start to finish; NO WAY! It took me close to double that time. Anyway, the time was worth all the effort. This was simply delicious. The secret ingredient is the preserved lemon (although I used two tablespoons, which I think was just right). I also added a bit of harissa paste to give the sauce a bit more oomph. Will definitely do it again.

Please specify whether the hen's thighs are with or without bone, skin.

Leftover spice mix plus 1:4 cumin and 1:4 dried ancho chili powder makes for a divine chili as well.

Make a quick preserved lemon a la Mark Bittman: slice and dice a lemon, removing pips. To this add sugar and salt in a 2:1 ratio: perhaps a good teaspoon of sugar and half one of salt. Stir. Ready to go in 30 minutes, keeps for a long time, becomes more traditional the longer it sits. Great on a log of goats cheese as a starter.

Has anybody done a gram conversion for the spices? Would love to see it.

Replace cauliflower with chickpeas

The recipe is far from perfect in several ways...The cauliflower turns to much after blanching and browning and 40 min cooking. The step of blanching and prepping tomatoes can be skipped by purchasing good quality canned whole peeled tomatoes. However, none of this would make much difference because in the end the recipe is just lacking in flavors. I remedied that somewhat by adding some hot harissa. Will not try to fix it or make it again. Much better tagine recipes are out there.

This is a stunningly delicious recipe--much more subtle than the tagines filled with dried fruit and nuts and lots of cumin. My husband noted that there were so many complex flavors. All we had was a couple of bone-in chicken breasts, so I made hlaf the recipe and we ate almost all of it and will fight over the rest.

My wife and I love this recipe and I make it for company all the time.The only change that I make is the elimination of parboiling the cauliflower. It is not necessary since it is browned and then cooked over 40 minutes in the stew.

The flavors were magical. However, I don’t see any need to cook the cauliflower in advance as it had no texture by the time it was served. Next time I will add the cauliflower in the final 20 minutes. I will definitely make this again.

Delicous. I used a can of diced tomatoes because it's winter, I tried adding the cauliflower for only 20 min at the end and it needed another 20 min on the stovetop to become soft enough.

This recipe could have been written more clearly. First, it did not say whether to purchase boneless or bone-in chicken thighs. After I shopped and read through the recipe again, I realized it seemed to be talking about bone-in thighs but it was never explicit. And, as others have noted, I have no idea why we had to make a massive amount of spice mix only to use two tablespoons. This is kind of typical of a chef written recipes and exactly why I prefer recipes from Melissa Clark and others!

As a Moroccan, I cringe every time a tagine recipe calls for serving it over couscous. A good tagine's sauce is simply not brothy enough to serve over couscous, though restaurants probably do that anyway bc it's cheaper and easier than good bread. Please do yourself a favor at home and enjoy your tagine with a crusty bread, like we do in North Africa! Any bread with an airy crumb like a baguette, ciabatta, or airy sourdough will do great, or even a softer flatbread like naan or a fluffy pita.

Ultimately, this dish promises more than it delivers, the short cooking time for the chicken means it just doesn't have the depth of flavor I'd expect from a tagine. Also, the recipe requires making a large amount of a spice mix, though the recipe only calls for about 1/4 of that amount, which is just wasteful. The saffron is wasted as it's overpowered by the other spices, I'm puzzled by the lack of cumin, and something to add a touch of heat (Aleppo pepper?)

Modify how much spices you make for this actual dish. It is not useful to have a recipe that calls for such a huge amount of spices upfront — without any warning until the very end that indeed the spice mix is to be left for later use! This is something the recipe should tell its audience upfront. I wasted a lot of spices for this and I’m not sure I’ll be making it again.

Loved it even more the next day! Flavors really meld. I followed the recipe closely but took a couple of shortcuts - 1. I used canned plum tomatoes. 2. I put the cauliflower in the microwave for 1 minute. It wasn’t too soft even after reheating on day 2. Amazing.