The Food Of Morocco
Chicken with Fennel, Preserved Lemon, and Olives
Page 302
Cuisine: Moroccan/Algerian/Tunisian | Course Type: Main Courses
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Recipe Reviews
Queezle_Sister from Salt Lake City, UT
This might be my favorite recipe of this book. It is fairly simple - chicken, fennel, preserved lemons and onions are the main ingredients. Olives, saffron, anise seed, and ground ginger round out the spices.
This dish had a wonderfully exotic flavor without being too heavy. We served it along side brown rice. Saving some of the fennel fronds and using them for garnish made the dish really beautiful.
Neither of us are big fennel fans, so I was suprised how much we liked this. The fennel and lemon flavors blended well. The large chunks of preserved lemon peel seem to have disappeared into the sauce. The long cooking develops a thick tasty sauce with bright lemon flavors. Because I was making only a half recipe in a skillet that was probably a bit too large (the next size smaller is cast iron and wouldn't do at all with lemon, I'm sure), I added more than half the water, to keep it from cooking completely dry.
- For dinner for two, I used four thighs, rather than two whole legs.
- Quite some clock time required, so this isn't a weeknight dinner, but I'd guess it holds well for company.
- Nothing difficult in the preparation. It's easy to do the chopping while the previous step completes cooking with minimal attention.
- Served with basmati rice. I suspect plain couscous or some nice bread for soppy would be better, but rice was fine.
Definitely a do-again.
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