Straight from her new book on fermentation, foodie Charlotte Pike shares her recipe for chicken tagine with homemade preserved lemons… Tuesday just got a whole lot better!

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 4 skinless chicken breasts, sliced around 7mm thick
• 2 small onions, sliced into thin slivers
• 3 cloves of garlic, peeled and crushed
• 4cm piece fresh ginger, peeled and finely grated
• Large pinch saffron, softened in 1 tbsp hot water
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 3 tbsp fresh lemon juice
• 2 homemade preserved lemons, thinly sliced, or 6 small shop bought preserved lemons, halved
• 3 tbsp green olives
• 1 x 400g tin chickpeas, drained and rinsed
• 200ml chicken stock
• 1 handful each or fresh flat leaf parsley and coriander, roughly chopped

Method

• Preheat the oven to 180C. Set your tagine dish aside. If you don’t have one, you can use a lidded oven-proof casserole dish.
• Heat the olive oil in a large frying pan. Add the chicken and stir fry until lightly browned. Add the onion, garlic and ginger and stir fry for around five minutes over a moderate heat, until fragrant.
• Add the saffron, cinnamon, lemon juice, preserved lemons, olives, chick peas and stock and stir well. Bring to a simmer and transfer the contents of the pan to the tagine or casserole. Place the lid on and bake for 45 minutes until the chicken is tender. If you prefer a slightly less liquid tagine, remove the lid and continue to bake the tagine for a further 10 minutes.
• Serve hot, topped with fresh parsley and coriander with some steaming couscous. It is particularly delicious eaten in the garden on a warm evening.

Photo credit: Charlotte Pike