Chicken with Preserved Lemons, Olives and Artichokes
Memories can be tricky. My sister and I recently compared childhood memories only to find that, while some matched, many did not and a few were completely contradictory. So, when I returned to Morocco after a 40-year hiatus, I feared the food would not live up to my seemingly indelible memories of magical scents and flavors. I was wrong. It was better.
My most memorable meal was at Riad 72, among a short list of places I had painstakingly researched and identified as a source of authentic cuisine. We scurried out of our hotel to Riad 72 – what we thought would be just a short walk through the streets of Marrakech. Admittedly estranged from the touristy center of town, we hadn’t been lost yet and thought it would be simple to locate a neighborhood riad.
Marrakech Alleyway
After aimlessly circling around winding streets, a couple of boys noted our confusion and offered to take us to Riad 72. Following them through even darker and narrower alleyways of Dar el Bacha, I began to wonder if these young men had either misunderstood or had something else in mind. Just when we were about to call the journey quits, they stopped abruptly and said “We are here”. Curious. Here?? There was nothing but a pair of massive doors — no number, no name and no windows. “It is here!”, they insisted, pointing at the doors. We stared, skeptical. Inpatient for their expected gratuity, the boys pounded loudly on the massive doors, which opened to reveal a slight Moroccan man who peered out asking our identity. With the mention of our names, the massive doors swung open welcoming us to a peaceful, sweet-smelling world within. We entered the century-old palace, leaving our young guides and the dark, dreary alleyways behind.
One of So Many Beautiful Marrakech Keyhole Doors
Since there were only two tables served that evening, the meal was a chef’s choice menu. Among other dishes, there was a remarkable chicken and artichoke main course, replete with so many of the flavors I love about Moroccan food. Served in a family-style bowl, we heaped spoonfuls of this glorious stew on piles of steaming couscous. Rich yet delicate, with the unexpected pungent preserved lemon and the sultry saffron, I simply had to make this dish. Would the chef be willing to help, I asked our server? Even without a common language, a beaming and eager chef pointing her way through the tiny kitchen enabled me to recreate this recipe.
Preserved (Pickled) Lemons
This chicken and lemon stew has a buttery-tasting, rich sauce that gets its flavor as much from the olives and lemon as the chicken and seasoning. So, it is essential to use good olives; I prefer Kalamata, but other mid-ripe olives will work. Of course, if you can find them pitted, it makes things easier. I have found canned olives unsatisfactory. For preserved lemons, if you do not want to make them or, more likely, do not have the time, they are available for purchase through specialty suppliers, but fresh lemons are not an adequate substitute. And finally, fresh artichokes are essential, as frozen will not provide the proper texture and color.
P.S. If you go to the Riad 72 website, you’ll see lovely fountains in the dining area, part of their overall beautiful decor. My friend managed to walk into the fountains not once, but twice. And he doesn’t even drink. This time a short-term memory problem….
Chicken with Preserved Lemons, Olives and Artichokes
Chicken with Preserved Lemons, Olives and Artichokes
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Recipe By: A Global Garnish, LLC, inspired by Riad 72
Serving Size: 4
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper, black
2 tablespoon oil, olive
8 chicken, legs and thighs, bone-in, or about 4 pounds dark meat only
2 1/2 cups water
1 1/2 cups onion, finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon ginger, dry
1/4 teaspoon cumin
1/4 teaspoon saffron, pulverized, or 3/8 teaspoon crushed threads
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup parsley, fresh
4 artichokes, fresh, whole
3/4 cup olives, fresh (not canned) dark green to light brown, mid-ripe such a Gaeta, Kalamata, Cerignola
1 preserved lemon, pulp removed, rind coarsely chopped
1 lemons lemon juice, fresh squeezed, (or more to taste)
Directions:
1. Mince garlic. In a small bowl, mix garlic with salt, pepper and olive oil.
Clean chicken pieces and remove excess fat from the chicken thighs.
Coat chicken with the garlic mixture and marinate at least 4 hours or overnight.
2. When marinade is ready, in a large Dutch Oven (acid-resistant stainless steel or enamel coated), mix water (or home-made salt-free stock if available), minced onion, ginger, cumin, saffron, salt and parsley. Add chicken to the Dutch Oven, scraping and any residual marinade into the pot.
3. Bring chicken and onion mixture to a boil, return to a simmer and cover. Cook 1/2 hour. Turn chicken pieces half way through cooking.
4. While chicken is simmering, prepare artichokes, olives and preserved lemons.
5. Artichokes: Trim the stem of each artichoke to about 1 inch. Remove outer leaves (you can save these for another use). Cut through the artichoke just above the base to remove the pointy tip. Remove the “fuzzy” center of the choke (I like to use a melon-baller for this). Peel the stem and any remaining tough leaf bases from the outside of the choke. Slice the choke in quarters lengthwise. Store chokes in a acidic water (lemon juice and water) to prevent browning while you wait to add them to the sauce.
6. Olives – Select a mid-ripe (usually dark green to light brown) olive such as Gaeta, Kalamata or Cerignola. I do not recommend canned olives as a substitute.
Rinse olives in water. Pit the olives and cut in half. Alternatively, slice around the pit, one third of the olive at at time.
7. Preserved Lemons: Rinse thoroughly in fresh water. Remove pulp and reserve rinds. Chop rinds and set aside.
8. Add artichokes, olives and preserved lemons. Return to a simmer. Cook uncovered an additional 15 minutes. (Note: saffron stains porous work surfaces, so protect these from sauce spatters).
Add fresh lemon juice and return to a simmer.
9. Remove chicken and artichokes to a shallow bowl or serving platter, cover and keep warm. Taste sauce for salt (the amount needed will depend on the salt in your lemons and olives), pepper and fresh lemon juice. Adjust if needed. For a thicker sauce, bring to medium heat and cook uncovered to reduce.
With a slotted spoon, remove some olives from the sauce and place over chicken/artichoke mix. Add some of the sauce to the serving platter and serve remaining sauce on the side.
10. Serve with traditional couscous. Garnish with wedges of lemon and parsley.
To plate individually, place a mound of couscous on each plate and press a well into the center. Add chicken, artichokes and olives to the center and pour drizzle some sauce on top. Garnish with lemon and parsley.
11. DO-AHEAD DIRECTIONS: Prepare chicken through step 3 a day ahead. On the day of service, return to stove-top, and continue beginning with step 5.
VARIATION: If you don’t care for artichokes or don’t have the time to prep them, feel free to make this recipe without the artichokes.
Royal Golf de Marrakech
Delicious!
Thank you 🙂
You post it! I was looking forward to your Moroccan recipe. You had me with “buttery-taste”! 😀
Thanks Fae. If you have time to try it, do let me know what you think. I’ve made this variation a number of times, and it is my favorite preserved lemon and chicken recipe.
Great dish, love the addition of artichokes!
And now I remember you posted a preserved lemon/chicken dish recently that sounded lovely. Went back to look at it and I’m going to try yours when I have a chance. I almost always brown meat before any type of slow cooking, but typically Moroccan cuisine does not do that with chicken – yet your recipe did. I would think that would add some flavor.
Absolutely superb. You make it sound so easy! Did you really get the chance to have a nosy in the kitchen? Hope so 🙂
Yes, it was quite charming. When I told the server, the cook came out just beaming and walked me into her tiny kitchen. She somehow got me to understand her cooking process. As you probably know, Arabic and French come before English in Morocco, so communication can be tough.
J – this looks amazing (and I have some preserved lemons just waiting for the right recipe!) And, pitted kalamatas are easy for us to find with the huge mediterranean influence in Sydney. Yum!
I loved the story.
Thanks so much TSL. Do let me know what you think. It is one of my Moroccan favorites now. And, except for digging out the artichoke hearts, the recipe is really very easy.
Aw yum!! Jeannee, you’ve created something amazing again! I love preserved lemons (in fact, I love all Moroccan and Middle Eastern food as you know) so I can’t wait to make this. It reminds me a bit of a tagine… is that what you were going for? I’d love to cook this in a traditional tagine pot but unfortunately I don’t have one. I’ll use cast iron, as you’ve suggested. Thanks for sharing your lovely Marrakech experience. You write so well xx
Oh, thanks Laura, for the lovely comments. And yes, it is a tagine (the stew), but I did not use a tagine (the Northern African clay dish) to make it. I either use a stainless Dutch Oven or my enamel-covered cast iron pot (which I think is what you meant) as a plain cast iron would be vulnerable to the acid.
Funny, as much Moroccan as I cook (and have for ages), I don’t have a tagine pot. Every time I’ve been to Morocco, I haven’t had room to lug one back, and I don’t particularly care for the modern ones you see here. The stove-top proof bottoms are functional, but certainly not traditional. I’ll have to hunt for an authentic one….
I want to do the same, actually! Tagines tend to be quite expensive in the shops over here though, and you’re right… the flavour still develops beautifully in a cast iron pot (yes I did mean enamel covered! I actually didn’t know they were sold without the enamel? Mine is Le Creuset). Definitely understand re the weight if you were lugging it home from Morocco though (haha, it’d be quite awkward as carry-on!).
Yes, I like Le Creuset. I have a couple from an older manufacturer – great color and shape but they chip, so I will need to toss them soon. Of course, “tossing” them could be a problem as they weigh about 50 pounds each!
Hahaaa! Very true! More like ‘gently placing the darn heavy object into a nearby disposal unit’! 🙂
Absolutely beautiful!
Thanks Mimi 🙂
A wonderful story and recipe to go along with it. I make chicken with preserved lemons and olives myself but like the sound of yours with the artichoke hearts.
Thanks Karen. I’ve had this dish many ways and, while this is one of my favorites, I love any chicken dish with preserved lemons.
I’m always looking for new ways to make chicken and this sounds delicious! Thanks for the recipe and have a lovely weekend. 🙂
Thanks Anne – A great weekend to you as well. Cool but beautiful here.
I love the flavours here. A fabulous recipe.
Thank Growing Paynes.
This dish sounds amazing and I can’t wait to give it a try. Wishing you a super weekend. Take care, BAM
Thanks Bam. A lovely weekend to you as well…
This looks very yummy! I’ve been watching a cooking program a few days ago featuring Moroccan cooking using the tajine. Made me so curious and want to try and now that I’ve seen this lovely recipe of yours, I guess that very soon, my cooking mode will shift to Middle Eastern flavors. 😉
Thanks Malou. It is my favorite type of cooking – something about the combination of flavors. I just never seem to tire of it. Let me know how it goes when you venture into your tagine cooking…
Too bad I didn`t know this when I waS in Marrakech, but seems like it was not easy to find 😉 Looks delicous:)
Thanks Mirrorgirl. But I’m sure you found some great food elsewhere in Marrkech. There were so many nice places.
Now you made me want to go back to Morrocco more than ever. The country is an adventure, and the food, mmmmmmmm. It has been too long. Great post.
Thank you. Yes, even beyond the food, it is a fascinating place – such a long and complex history.
I’ve preserved lemons just looking to be put to good use and any recipe chicken that “requires” dark meat is aces in my book! I’ve pinned this one and will definitely be giving it a shot. Thanks for sharing a great recipe.
Thanks John. I haven’t quite figured out why the texture of white meat just doesn’t work in this recipe, but it just doesn’t. So, if you are a dark meat fan, this will work. I like it best with bone-in chicken thighs.
Looks & sounds delicious! What a fun scary/exciting story too.
Thank you. It was actually mostly a funny experience, although at the last moment I did start to wonder….
What an adventure searching for the restaurant! The dish looks fabulous!
Thanks TOC. It is among my favorites, but I’m partial to most North African food. Or perhaps it is just that I’ve been working hard to get my photos even half as communicative as yours 🙂
What a beautiful meal! I absolutely adore all the flavours in this recipe. Lemons may very well be my favourite fruit, and I can only imagine how delicious the preserved lemons are in this dish with the olives. I just have to get over my fear of fresh artichokes! I The one and only time I tried making them fresh, I boiled them for ages and they seemed very tough still, and even the inner parts were prickly. Barely any of it was edible:S I guess artichokes just aren’t my area of expertise…
Oh, no worries. The flavors in this dish come from the olives, preserved lemons and saffron. You can leave out the artichokes. They are also the most labor-intensive part of the dish – trimming and peeling the chokes.
If you do try artichokes again, the trick is to remove all the tough parts (skin on stem and leaves and the “prickly” fuzz in the middle). What’s left is the tender center of the choke, which should cook to a nice texture in a short period of time. Leaves can be cooked on their own and scraped clean of the tender interior side.
And thank you so much for your nice comments.
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I always knew that Morocco was one great city, and its food is too amazing to give a miss. Love your take on Moroccan chicken. Thanks for the recipe 🙂
Thanks much Miss Spicy! Yes, Marrakech is a great city, and the food even better 🙂