Chicken Tagine with Preserved Lemons, Olives, and Prunes

Plus: Bourbon Apple Bundt Cake, Brunch at All Time, and Links.

Hey everyone,

I have a new thing that I’m really into and it’s not singing along to Patti LuPone’s live concert version of “Don’t Cry for Me Argentina” while making scones (though I’m also really into that). It’s seasoning meat the night before I cook it.

Now I know what you’re thinking. “Adam, that’s a trick as old as time itself. Even cave people did that!” Sure, but how often do you think ahead and season meat as soon as you get home from the store? You know there’s no reason not to: sprinkling meat with salt, even if you’re a few days away from cooking it, both tenderizes the meat and seasons it all the way through. So that’s what I did with these chicken thighs the night before I made Florence Fabricant’s chicken tagine.

There’s something so satisfying about rubbing your thighs with garlic, paprika, cumin, and turmeric right before you go to bed (your chicken thighs, not your actual thighs). It’s like a little gift to yourself for the next day: “Your chicken dinner is going to be ten times as good and all you had to do was some rubbing!” (I left out the saffron threads because they were so expensive and honestly, I didn’t miss them here.)

My only “oops!” moment with this recipe came the next morning when I realized that I’d forgotten to buy preserved lemons. No biggie! Using Mark Bittman’s technique, I chopped up two lemons, threw away the seeds, and tossed them with a little sugar and salt and set aside. Throughout the day, I stirred them.

An hour before I was ready to make the tagine, I took the chicken out of the refrigerator to come to room temperature. When it was time to cook, I heated olive oil in my large Dutch oven and started searing the chicken skin side down. Now this was slightly stressful, because there were bits of garlic in there, and I couldn’t knock them all off without knocking off the seasoning…

Burning garlic when cooking is a big no-no because the burnt flavor infuses everything, but here it didn’t really matter. Yes, some of the garlic burned as I got the chicken golden brown, but I just lifted out the burnt garlic with a spoon and when I was done searing all of the chicken on both sides, I got rid of all of the black stuff before adding the onions.

I really cooked the onions down here — instead of the required fifteen minutes, I went longer, until they got really golden — then I added the cinnamon stick, the chicken back in, enough chicken stock to come up to the sides, and then all of the good stuff: chopped olives, the preserved lemons, and — my own special touch — prunes.

Lid on, this simmered away while my guests arrived on low heat. It only requires 30 minutes, but I kept it going, because you can’t really overcook chicken thighs and I wanted it to be hot when I served it. (At some point I took the lid off so the liquid would concentrate.)

As a side, I decided to toast some couscous in olive oil until golden brown, then cook it with chicken stock. It made for a great nutty, toasty base (I added toasted almonds and scallions just for a little crunch and color).

Here are my happy customers, ready to dive into their tagine.

For dessert, we had Melissa Clark’s Apple Bourbon Bundt Cake which tasted like a boozy muffin, in the best possible way.

(You soak it in a Bourbon syrup, hence the boozy quality.)

On Saturday, I had lunch with my friend Andre of Shaquanda’s Hot Pepper Sauce at All Time in Los Feliz.

I had the B.O.A.T. which had fried eggs, black beans, pickled red onion, crispy sweet potatoes, and a crispy, cheesy quesadilla.

And on Saturday night, I visited Craig’s cousin David and Uncle Chris in Topanga Canyon where they surprised me by making my very own Cheeses Crisped Superstar from Give My Swiss Chards to Broadway!

I was so happy to see how well they came out. (Crispy cheese with a hit of cayenne… what’s not to love?)

Now for some links:

• Dorit’s annoying cocktail order. If I ever ask for three lemons, “carcass out,” kill me. (Eater);

• Did Dorit invent the term “carcass out?” Why am I linking to this? I don’t know! (Gawker);

• Thomasina Miers’ brown butter apple crumble cake. Yum! (The Guardian);

• Bill Addison reviews Damian, which got short-shrift early on because of the pandemic, but now seems to be thriving (LA Times);

• Rockefeller Center is a now culinary hot spot in NY. Who’d a thunk it? (Grub Street).

That’s all for today, folks!

I’m going to write all about my pork chop, apple chutney, and chocolate pudding Sunday night dinner in this Thursday’s newsletter, so if you want to get that in your inbox, be sure to become a paid subscriber. $5 a month is less than you pay for popcorn at the movies, so don’t pretend like you can’t afford it!

Until next time….

Your friend,

Adam