sheet-pan chicken tagine
morocco in your mouth!
(Scroll to the bottom of this post to skip the intro and get a printer version of this recipe. And click here for the WTC recipe index!)
One of my fun facts that I always use in icebreaker scenarios is that I once won a free trip to Morocco. I was studying abroad in Sevilla, Spain, and my friend Scottie and I wandered into a particularly slimy bar one night. It was crawling with other study abroad kids, and a tour company was raffling off a free trip. We grabbed one of the (free) raffle tickets, not thinking anything of it, and went about our night, engaging in our favorite pastime of knocking back cheap mojitos, even though we were living in Spain, not Cuba. Lots of question marks there — but the point is, about an hour later they called out the winning number and… it was mine! Two weeks later, Scottie and I were setting sail from the south of Spain to the northern tip of Morocco. The trip was about as budget as you’d imagine a free trip raffled off in a scummy bar would be, but we had a fantastic time, and managed to not get eaten by bedbugs at the seedy hotels where they put us up.
Why are we talking about my free trip to Morocco?
Because Morocco is home of the tagine and we are making a tagine-inspired sheet-pan meal this week. Tagine is a delicious North African dish that’s named after the clay pot in which it’s traditionally cooked. Lamb, chicken, or beef — plus a myriad of spices and vegetables — are cooked together in the tagine until tender and succulent. There are many different ways to season a tagine recipe, and I’ve gone with a selection of spices that are easy to find and that most of you will already have in your cupboard. They aren’t written in the recipe below, but if you have them: a 1/2 teaspoon of both saffron and turmeric would be lovely additions.
But I don’t own a tagine!
If you DO own a tagine, tell us in the comments — I’d love to hear the story behind that acquisition. But since most of us don’t have one laying around, I’ve created a sheet-pan version of this delicious dish. We pour broth into the sheet pan (so you definitely need a rimmed one for this!), so that the chicken and veggies can simmer away in the oven until tender.
If you don’t have a large rimmed sheet pan, you can make this tagine chicken on the stovetop. Using a dutch oven or heavy-bottomed pot, simmer the ingredients in the broth (covered) until the chicken reaches 165°F internally.
But chicken thighs freak me out!
Why? Why!!! They are the most delicious, nearly-impossible-to-F-up cut of meat! But fine. As always, there are tons of subs in the notes section below the recipe!
sheet-pan chicken tagine
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