A Tagine of Baby Chickens with Saffron, Green Olives and Preserved Lemons served with Couscous
August 30, 2011 in Uncategorized
Tino-the-claw-Tripepi has his ways. He is an impressive 14years old now and if he were to be kissed by a fairy tale princess he would *POEF *, turn into that grumpy old man, the late Walther Matthau. He is basically full of ‘kitty-kak’. I think that he has feline Alzheimer’s, for one moment he is cuddling up and literally drooling over some attention and the next he gives you a scowling meauuwthful, flicks his tail like Zorro’s whip and turns his back on you.
My daily routine dictates that I am up at between 4.30 – 5am, a quick change into my walking klobber, and then I start planning my blog posts. Out comes my notebook in which I record the B-plan for the week, the names of the recipes that I intend posting together with the corresponding numbers of the photos I am going to post. Due to the events of last year I am completely anal about backing up and recording my photos etc. so this book is NEVER removed from my desk. If my family need some paper and even look sideways at it – I start foaming at the mouth like a woman possessed.
Now – what Tino wants Tino gets OR ELSE! I was rushing to get out of the door at 5.20am last Wednesday and as the front door slammed behind me I realised that I hadn’t let multiple personality stricken Sir Grumpy out, and I just didn’t have the time to go back inside deactivate and activate the blinking alarm hunna hunna ………. Sooo off I sped like a bat out of hell to go and fetch my girlfriend Kami for our morning walk. BIG MISTAKE, for this is what I got back to ……..
Bastardo!!!!
Ti do una sberla che ti faccio nuovo Tino!
Needless to say – I ditched the recipe, the cat and a blog post on that day!!! I have performed nothing less than ‘plastic surgery’ on my sacred note book ……. de-clawed my cat (in my head) and am back on track to post this tomorrow.
This is an Italo/ Moroccan style tagine that was one of those impromptu success stories. The lemon/garlic and oregano balanced off the saffron beautifully. There is one thing to remember when cooking with saffron, and that is that less is more. I love the flavour but adding too much saffron just ruins a dish as it overpowers all of the other flavours.
Tagine of Baby Chickens with Saffron, Green Olives and Preserved Lemons
Ingredients
2 Baby spatch cocked baby chickens * see below how to do this yourself
1 onion roughly chopped
2 lemons – the juice of 2 lemons and the zest of 1 lemon
1 heaped tsp of periperi or cayenne pepper
9 queen green olives – these are the extra large plump green olives
4 bay leaves
1tbs of finely chopped garlic
1Tbs cracked black pepper
2tbs honey
1 pinch of Saffron soaked in hot water
1Tbs Oregano
2Tbs Olive Oil
2tsp salt
1 jar of Verlaque Preserved Lemons (optional)
Place all of the above into a Ziploc bag and leave to marinade for a few hours.
This is ideal to prepare before you go to work, by the time that you get home the
flavours will have infused right into the flesh of the chicken which is just what you want.
How to Spatch Cock a Baby Chicken
Firstly trim off all excess skin
A good pair of kitchen shears would be great for this job.
I just used a large pair of scissors. I don’t go in for too many gadgets.
Place the chicken breast side down.
Cut down either side of the backbone right to the Pope’s Nose and remove the back bone.
I added these to the bag of marinade and chicken – why throw all that flavour away.
Using a sharp knife make an incision either side of the breast bone in a V-shape
Press the bone down and remove
Flip the chicken over and press down with the heel of your hand and flatten the chicken.
Soak your tagine in warm water for 20minutes.
In a frying pan brown the chicken on both sides and place breast side down
into your tagine which will ensure that the flesh cooks submerged in the marinade and
retains all it’s juiciness.
Now add the marinade to the pan and fry the onions and heat the marinade up nicely and pour it over the chicken.
Add one jar of Verlaque (available at Woolies) Preserved lemons with the liquid.
Place in a pre-heated oven 160d for 50 minutes.
From my pictures you will notice that I served the baby chickens with hubby’s
favourite (click on this link for the recipe) Portuguese Style potatoes .
This was a special request by Trickyricky.
I buy my baby chickens from The Shed (theshed@satweb.co.za) – they are free range,
organic and hormone free. Because they live a natural life style they are quite plump
and average around 750g (R48.00 per kilo) so I can only manage half a bird.
This meant that I had half a chicken left over and a whole tagine/ bowl of wonderful lemony/ chicken
drenched sauce.
Left-overs go straight down Max’s gob when he arrives here in the morning.
The juices were soaked up by some couscous and the whole lot disappeared into Max in a flash.
He did leave me some couscous!!
As always
Buon Appetito
Xx
jan
rumtumtigger said on August 30, 2011
Oh yummy! Love the idea of letting the couscous soak up the left over sauce. Just one question, I’m not an olive fan so, if I left the olives out of the recipe, would it make a huge difference?
kat64 said on August 30, 2011
Oh lawd, now I want to go home & cook! This looks absolutely lovely – looking at the pictures I can almost taste and smell the food. Beautiful, Jan.
janicetripepi said on August 30, 2011
Morning Tiggs – no problemo, always make a recipe your own – leave them out or add something in … how about some nuts or dried apricots eg. Have an awesome day xxx jan
The couscous was a great way to use all those juices … you could, if you want, even cook some rice or pastina (small pasta like rosmarino) in those juices if you are not a couscous lover xx
janicetripepi said on August 30, 2011
Thanks angel – fabulous fresh and clean flavours with a hint of spice … just the thing for Spring xxx have a great day xxx jan
tandy.sinclair said on August 30, 2011
poor kitty! You are up very early Jan – hope you have a super day xxx
HealthyVegetarianFoods said on August 30, 2011
Wonderful post Jan. Love the pics. Since you are up so early–i hope you have an early night. Have a lovely day
Kitchengirl said on August 30, 2011
Showee those flavours are heavenly!
janicetripepi said on August 30, 2011
I love being up early ….. and in summer I get up impossibly early to exercise … here in Debben we suffer with humidity so the only time to hit the road is 4.30am …..
janicetripepi said on August 30, 2011
Thanks Caro Have a great day xxx jan
janicetripepi said on August 30, 2011
I do hey – I am in bed by 9pm-ish … unless we go out or have people over for dinner …. Thanks for you lovely comment Usha xxx Have a great day xxx jan
Sous-Chef said on August 30, 2011
I am salivating! I have a jar of those preserved lemons in my cupboard. Tino got you where it hurt!
Zabwan said on August 30, 2011
Horrors!! I also keep a notebook to track what’s been posted, what’s been published, what’s next, ideas from 3 o’clock in the morning, etc…so I can just imagine your murderous thoughts towards Tino!!!
Oh man…I could do with a large helping of that chicken and cous cous right now, droooool xxxxx
JustChef said on August 30, 2011
BAD BAD KITTY!!!!!!
janicetripepi said on August 30, 2011
For sure …. he shredded pages and pages of my notebook the little so and so!!! xxx
janicetripepi said on August 30, 2011
Little blighter came so close to landing in the big cat box in the sky!!!! xxx Thanks angel xxxx jan
janicetripepi said on August 30, 2011
Sue – they are just devine those lemons. I am off to buy another jar to keep for my next tagine …. eish! Very nice xxx jan
ninatimm said on August 30, 2011
The queen of flavor you are. Great post and fab food!!
janicetripepi said on August 30, 2011
Thanks Nina-kins xxxx
superNBE said on August 30, 2011
This looks so yummy! I tried my hand at saffron about two weeks ago and I love the flavour that it adds to a dish. Always enjoy your posts:)
janicetripepi said on August 31, 2011
Thanks Super – me too but just don’t overdo it!!! Risotto a la Milanese is one of my favourite dishes xxxxx have a great day xxx jan
sharonsmit said on August 31, 2011
lols – poor Cat, at least he didnt use the notapad as a loo (just to make a point!).
Have a fab day!! xxx
The chicken looks scrumptious…I want a tagine!!!
ilovecooking said on September 1, 2011
Helloooooo Bokkie! After days and days and days of kid-friendly food like crumbed this and crumbed that with chips and more chips and KFC for variety …LOL (true)and white bread and little tubs of butter and milk and jam, I suddenly got like a chicken yeterday amidst inhuman pressure and i got up and did what…????? Jumped up from mountain of work, attacked my fridge and freezer, took out pork belly and cooked your immensely gorgeous-looking pork belly-thingie of a few days/weeks ago! (Cant tell you day of time right now nevermind the dae or date …!)Then I called the kids over and they platzed and swooned and took ALL the leftovers back home with them. Such, my dear, is your influence on our lives. You gotta luv it and you’ve gotta luv that Danny boy eat him up! XXX
janicetripepi said on September 1, 2011
Little bastardo!! I love my tagine but the only problem with them is that they tend to be quite small – so a bit of advice, when you do get around to buying one – buy the biggest you can find! thanks darling xxx hugs xxx jan
janicetripepi said on September 1, 2011
Lililililililillllllllllllliiiii – my African ululating … I know what you mean about that pork belly – you just can’t stop eating the blasted stuff …. yumxxx Thanks angel – I am so looking forward to seeing Dan soon xxxx jan
cookingfoody said on October 27, 2011
All I can say is wow wow wow! LOVE your pics and recipes!
janicetripepi said on October 27, 2011
Thanks my darling you are so kind … love baby chickens and couscous – why waste all that natural gravy … have an awesome day xxx jan