Chicken and Winter Squash Tagine | Everyday Dorie

Morocco is a place of endless intrigue and mystery. It has been on our list of travel destinations which has sadly been derailed. However, we can get to Morocco without traveling abroad by way of the kitchen. A chicken and winter squash tagine may well be the ticket for us to experience the taste and sense of the place. If not anything else, I’m motivated to cook a tagine the traditional way. Then pile onto it every Moroccan spice I have at my disposal.

THE MOROCCAN SPICES

Dorie’s recipe in Everyday Dorie calls for warm pungent spices: ras el hanout (2 tbsp), sumac (1 1/2 tsp), lemon zest (2 strips), turmeric (1 tsp) and cayenne pepper (1/4 tsp), for 12 pieces of chicken and one small acorn squash. There are many spices in ras el hanout, Dorie says. Consider that it’s a very old mixture of numerous spices — some say nineteen, some say twenty six. The kind I use contains twelve ingredients. They include: coriander, paprika, cumin, cardamom, cinnamon, black pepper, red pepper, turmeric, ginger, nutmeg, clove and allspice. Some Moroccans even claim that ras el hanout contains more than a hundred ingredients. Well, who’s counting? Nonetheless, it’s safe to say that anything goes and everything is permissible in a ras el hanout. Doesn’t that nearly capture the essence of the place — diverse, dreamy and confluence of cultural influences?

I can’t pass up the chance to use the homemade preserved lemon in addition to the lemon zest and juice in the recipe. Preserved lemon is the most important condiment in a Moroccan pantry. There is nothing that rivals the unique and funky flavor of preserved lemon; fresh lemon does not come close.

As I served the chicken and squash tagine for dinner, my husband thought it was a curry. Taking the first bite, he knew instantly that curry it was not. What differentiates curry from a tagine is clearly the spice mix. They share many common spices, except two. Sumac and lemon zest, or preserved lemon. The acidity of the lemon gives the tagine another flavor dimension, setting it apart from a curry. My husband likes the titillating flavor of the tagine; he can’t stop eating it.

THE TAGINE ALTERNATIVES: A CAST-IRON DUTCH OVEN AND/OR A CLAY POT

I don’t have a tagine, the two-piece earthenware with a conical chimney top and a wide base, in which most Moroccan stews are cooked. Therefore, I decide to conduct a comparative experiment of two cooking vessels. Dorie says if you don’t have a tagine, you can use a Dutch oven.

I have an underutilized clay pot, which is the closest to a tagine I have in my kitchen. So why not use them both and compare the results? I have to admit they are two different pans and require dissimilar cooking methods. In other words, we run the risk of comparing apples to oranges. However, the ingredients are the same going into each pot.

MAKING THE CHICKEN AND WINTER SQUASH STEW

Much like making a coq au vin, which we did back then when we cooked along with David Lebovitz. First, start with sautéing the onions in the Dutch oven. Brown and sear the chicken pieces in another skillet. Stir in the blend of Moroccan spices and preserved lemon slices in the pot with the sautéd onions. Then add two cups of chicken broth.

Next, arrange the chicken pieces and fit the squash among the chicken. This is the moment when the rubber meets the road, so to speak. I divide the chicken, squash and the liquid into two separate pots: the Dutch oven and the clay pot. Bring the liquid in both pots to a boil on the stovetop.

Finally, 1) leave the Dutch oven to a gentle simmer on the stovetop. 2) Place the clay pot in a preheated 300°F oven. Cook until the chicken is fall-off-the-bone soft and the squash is fork-tender. It takes approximately 40 minutes in the Dutch oven and about an hour in the clay pot for the stew to finish cooking.

FINAL NOTE

The pictures are worth a thousand words and you can judge for yourself the visual differences between the two pots. Both look fantastic. More than that, I have twice the pleasure as I unlid the cooking vessels. Examining closer, there is thin jus at the bottom of the Dutch oven, while the sauce in clay pot is more reduced.

Beyond the look, I am drawn to the chicken stew in the clay pot. To me, the clay pot imparts a “taste of the earth” that permeates the entire dish. The resulting tagine achieves a succulence and depth of flavor, another dimension that is less obvious in the Dutch oven. The recycling of moisture seems to be more efficient in the clay pot without the excessive heat. Now I’m starting to understand the wisdom of using earthenware like a tagine or a clay pot.

I don’t catch the whiffs of scents from the copious amount of Moroccan spices in the dish, but the flavor of the tagine is glorious. For a finishing touch, I squeeze lemon juice and sprinkle nigella seeds over the tagine. To some extent, tagine cooking remains mysterious. Do longer and slower cooking help? There is more to explore.