Chicken tagine with preserved lemon

Ingredients

Quantities for 4 servings.

• 1.4 kg Chicken, jointed
• 2 piece Preserved lemon, peel only
• 150 g Green olives
• 2 piece Onions, thinly sliced
• 4 clove Garlic
• 1 tsp Ground ginger
• 1 tsp Turmeric
• 1 pinch Saffron
• 6 sprig Coriander and parsley
• 60 ml Olive oil
• 200 ml Water
• to taste Salt and pepper

Method

1. Grind the garlic, ginger, turmeric, saffron, chopped herbs, oil, salt and pepper into a paste. Rub it over the chicken and leave it an hour.
2. Spread the onion in an even layer over the base of the tagine or a heavy pan: it keeps the chicken off the bottom and becomes part of the sauce.
3. Set the chicken on top skin up, pour the water down the side, cover and cook over a low flame for forty minutes without lifting the lid.
4. Add the preserved lemon peel in strips and the olives, cover and give it twenty minutes more.
5. Take the lid off and reduce the sauce for five minutes if it is still loose. Check the salt only at the end: the lemon and olives have already provided it.