Chicken tagine thingey

I love the story that comes with this recipe. My friend Manda made me a chicken and apricot tagine when we both lived in London. I tried to recreate it a week later for some friends and they loved it. So much so that they asked for the recipe, which I promptly made up. Fuelled by the adulation I made it again for some other friends the following week. They loved it and asked for the recipe. This happened one more time. After that I stopped making it, I’d gone in too hard too early.

A few years later my girlfriend Nicole, (who is an extra ordinary cook with a Cordon Bleu feather in her hat) mentioned that her sister was making my ‘Chicken Tagine Thingey’. I was like, my what? She reminded me of the dish and forwarded me the email I had originally sent her entitled ‘Chicken tagine thingey’.

A few years later still, with this dish firmly back in my repertoire and now living in Sydney, I was making it for dinner and to introduce chicken to a then baby Zach. My girlfriend Fiona (another inspiring cook) came over. She asked what was cooking and upon being told, she informed me that all of her female family (mum, sister, aunts) make my ‘chicken tagine thingey’.

The sad thing is, I’ve been taking credit for it for so long, when actually I should have been calling it ‘Manda’s chicken tagine thingey’. Sorry Manda.

Anyways, it was made most recently for an early dinner date with the truly gorgeous Bellamy who apparently sang all the way home. She’s such a joyous child she would have done it anyway, but it’s made me post it.

You will need:

Olive oil

1 inch ginger, finely grated

1 garlic clove, crushed

750g chicken thighs, diced into chunks.

1 brown onion, finely sliced

1 teaspoon cumin seeds,ground

1 teaspoon coriander seeds,ground

¼ teaspoon cardamom seeds, ground ground

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

2 medium sized sweet potatoes (or 1 big one) peeled and cut into 2cm cubes – you can use pumpkin, which is wonderful for flavour, but can’t take the cooking time as well.

1 litre chicken stock (or water if you prefer)

Juice of a lemon

Fish sauce

½ cup of apricots

Preheat oven to 160 degrees celcius.

Heat olive oil in casserole dish and brown the chicken in batches. Remove with slotted spoon and set aside. Then add some more oil and a knob of butter to the pan. When the butter starts to bubble add the onions and stir to coat. When the onions start to soften, add the ground spices and stir around for a minute or so until your kitchen is lovely and fragrant. Then add the sweet potatoes and stir around until they are coated with the spice laden onions. Pour stock over the sweet potatoes, add the lemon juice and a couple of splashes of fish sauce. Bring to the boil. Return chicken to the pan along with the apricots and stir to combine. Bring to the boil again.

Then place the lid on your casserole dish and stick in the oven for an hour or so, until the vegetables are soft, but not mushy and the chicken flakes apart.

This purees really well, should you have a puree eating member of the family. Also, if you find there’s too much liquid, take some out along with a bit of the sweet potato. Puree the extracted bits and return to the pan to thicken the sauce.

When you serve this to adults, stir through some almonds (whole or cut) and sprinkle generously with fresh coriander.

Serve with cous cous, quinoa or brown rice.