Chicken Tagine with Apricots and Roasted Almonds
Last week you read that My Boozy Kitchen received this gorgeous press kit from Vondeling Wines. You will remember that there was a gorgeous bottle of Vondeling Wine – the newly released vintage of their flagship Babiana 2017. It has made it to my top list of favourite Chenin Blanc blends. I have to admit that I was so excited about this, it called for something super special. My good friends Jolly Good Notion came together and we made a little video of me making the chicken tagine.
Making the video was a hard pill to swallow as I absolutely hate being in front of the camera. I just don’t have the confidence and feel more at ease behind my computer screen talking to you via my writing. However, when I saw the final result, I was super impressed with what Jolly Good Notion did. Going forward we plan to work together so we can make more video’s like this. If you are interested you can watch it below:
If you liked what you watched, then please feel free to subscribe to my channel.
Now that this is out of the way, can we can get back to the Chicken Tagine article? Good?… Thank you!
So you remember this box?
Last weeks article, I was a little secretive to the remaining items in the box, and with good cause. 🙂 So TAAAA-DAAAA – I present to you… ( Excuse the little dramatics… but it is good to be a little dramatic at times, especially when you receive a gift like this. )
The Vondeling Babiana Chicken Tagine Box!
Inside the box contained the following:
- 1 x Bottle Vondeling Babiana 2017 (gorgeously wrapped)
- 1 x post card of the babiana noctiflora with a little message
- 1 x lemon
- 1 x packet of dates
- 1 x packet of turkish apricots
- 1 x packet of sliced almonds
- 1 x pot of honey
- 1 x tagine spice mix
- 1 x recipe
- a little more information about the Babiana wine
I have to say I don’t know where Vondeling got their honey from – but would it be weird if I say it gives me goosebumps every time I think about it? You know in the bible it speaks about the Promised Land where it flows with milk and honey? Well this is how I would imagine in how that honey would taste. It is soft, smooth not overly sweet, has that typical honey taste but I picked up immediately almonds. Makes you wonder if the busy bees hive was not near an almond orchard…
It is always important to taste a spice mix before adding it to cooking. You need to have an idea of how much of what is inside the mixture. You also need to know if it is hot and spicy or is it just spicy. Is there salt? This way you can adjust your cooking accordingly. When the spice jar was opened I immediately got cinnamon and turmeric on the nose. On the palate you can taste the cinnamon, turmeric and the zing of the ginger on the tip of the tongue. You don’t need to add any other spices to this mixture other than a little salt.
Few tips in cooking the Chicken Tagine:
The chicken tagine was absolutely delicious. It was warm, rich and has a punch of flavour. This will definitely be a firm favourite in our house. You have spiciness, sweetness from the honey, apricots, dates, and sweet potatoes. Yet by adding in the tomato paste and some lemon juice helps to tone down the sweetness so it is not overly sweet. The perfect dish for Autumn!
The recipe calls for 10 pieces of chicken. My choice was chicken thighs. I absolutely love the thighs of chicken. They have such wonderful flavour and they stay moist. The one issue I had with the recipe was the call for 1 garlic clove, but then again I always have this issue with most recipes. Like seriously, who the heck uses only one garlic clove? My recommendation is 4. 🙂 🙂
Why the use of butter and oil you may ask. Well it is because when you saute the oil helps to heat the butter at a higher temperature without it smoking. Butter adds so much flavour (Yes, Yes, I know… but it taste so good!!) Oil normally doesn’t have strong flavours, adding the two they work in harmony; flavour and a higher smoking point! YAY!!
I also added a little extra fresh ginger to the sauteing of onions and garlic. Just for a little extra punch. Then topping it off with toasted almonds when complete adds texture, toastiness and rounding off the dish.
Serve this dish with Jasmine rice, however Eskom came along and we had loadshedding GRRRRR!!! Sadly my rice was not cooked in time (we were too starved to wait for 2.5 hours before we can eat!) I just managed to get the chicken cooked in time.
In the end we had lovely cheese buns (I know not the ideal) but this dish was so delicious you could clean the pot out but getting each drop of this tasty sauce.
This dish pairs super well with the Babiana Vondeling 2017. The dish totally compliments the wine and the wine compliments the dish. They balance each other perfectly. Meaning that one is not dominating over the other. That is how a food and wine pairing is suppose to be, to be able to elevate each other and complimenting.
Okay… Okay… You must be so tired of my talking and itching to cook so I will not hold you up any longer! Herewith is the recipe, and until next time bon appetit!
Calories
Fat
Carbs
Protein
Serves 4 - 6
Vondeling Voor-Paardeberg Wines
As Autumn starts to creep in, you want to enjoy this rich, warm and flavoursome chicken tagine dish for those cooler days. Warm notes of spiciness, sweetness from dates, apricots and honey and toasted almonds adding a lovely crunch for texture. Serve this with Jasmine rice or couscous.
15 minPrep Time
1 hrCook Time
1 hr, 15 Total Time
Save RecipeIngredients
- 10 thigh pieces of free range chicken
- 1 big knob of butter
- 1 glug of extra virgin olive oil
- 1 large onion diced
- 4 cloves of garlic, peeled and chopped
- 20g of tagine spice mix*
- 40g honey
- 80g dried Turkish apricots
- 80g pitted dates
- 2 medium red skinned sweet potatoes
- 500ml chicken stock (if you can make your own the better)
- 50g tomato paste
- 1 juice of a lemon
- 50g flaked almonds - toasted
- 2 tsp ginger powder
- 2 tsp tumeric powder
- 2 tsp paprika powder
- 1 tsp black pepper
- 1 tsp cinnamon powder
- 1 tsp coriander powder
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius.
- Heat butter and oil in a large oven proof dish.
- Brown chicken on all sides.
- Remove from dish and set aside.
- Add the onions, garlic, and ginger to the pan and lightly saute.
- Add the tagine spice mix and saute for a few minutes. (don't allow for it to burn)
- Add the honey, apricots, dates and cook for a further 2 minutes.
- Pour in the chicken stock, tomato paste and the juice of one lemon.
- Bring to a simmer and season to taste.
- Place the chicken and sweet potato either back in the oven dish or transfer to a clay tagine pot with the sauce poured over the chicken.
- Cover with a lid and put in pre-heated oven for 1 hour or until chicken cooked and the sweet potato is soft.
- Remove from oven sprinkle with toasted almonds. Serve on Jasmine rice or couscous.
Notes
Wine Pairing with this autumn dish: Vondeling Flagship White Wine - Babiana 2017
And remember: "One cannot think well, love well and sleep well if one has not dined well." Viginia Woolf
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