Chicken with olives – the traditional Moroccan version

One of Morocco’s most popular dishes is chicken with olives. For all those who’d like to enjoy a little of Morocco at home we are exploring two versions of this classic.

The first is a traditional Moroccan recipe from Samira at the Riad Laaroussa kitchen, who writes the blog A Moroccan Kitchen, recommended reading for anyone who enjoys the Moroccan cuisine.

This recipe uses the traditional Moroccan ingredient of preserved lemons.

For this recipe that will feed 4 to 6 you’ll need the following ingredients:

• 1 chicken – approx 2kg – or 2kg of chicken legs or thighs
• 4 medium onions – sliced
• 4 tablespoons – Olive oil
• 4 garlic cloves – crushed or sliced
• ½ teaspoon ground ginger
• A pinch of saffron
• 1 litre of water
• Salt
• 1 tablespoon chopped parsley and coriander
• 100g red olives
• Strips of preserved lemon

Cooking:

Samira uses a pressure cooker in her recipe, but we’ve adapted it a bit as pressure cookers aren’t that common in the kitchens of most people we know. Use a heavy metal casserole pan with a lid or similar.

Pre heat your oven to 180c or Gas Mark 6.

• Add the olive oil to the pan and allow the pan to heat over a moderate heat. Add the chicken pieces and brown well chicken all over to seal them
• After the chicken pieces have started to brown add the onions, garlic and a generous pinch of salt
• When the onion has coloured nicely add the ginger and saffron
• Continue cooking until the chicken is golden on all sides
• Add 1 litre of water and heat to a rolling simmer
• Now put a lid on the pan and put it into the preheated oven for approx 1.5 hours – 2 hours.
• Check the chicken is well cooked and remove the pan from the oven
• Turn up the oven o 220C or Gas Mark 8
• Remove the chicken from the pan and put it on a tray in the oven to brown
• Put the olives with the preserved lemon strips into the sauce and reduce it to a thick sauce.
• When the sauce has thickened and the chicken browned, stir the parsley and coriander into the sauce
• Serve the chicken with sauce and decorate it with olives and slices of preserved lemonThis dish is best served with rice.

This dish is best served with rice.