Chicken Tagine with Fennel and Olives

I make this quite often and like it. Strickly speaking it is not a tagine unless it is served in a tagine but it is certainly in the style of a tagine. The spice mix is fine, but I think it would be better with a ras el hanout. The only ingerient that might be hard to find for that spice mix is mace but one can fake it with some extra nutmeg with a bit of allspice. When I make it following the recipe I ramp uf the spices a bit and get really good olives. The olives are essential.

• mollusk

• 5/6/2023

We LOVED this recipe. I didn't use low sodium broth and I added about 1/4 cup white wine, but I only reduced for the time it suggested and then added a few tablespoons of cream. It was perfect. It was so flavourful - I'm not sure what others did wrong who said it was bland. ... The olives just put it over the top - I used a pitted party mix - the combination with the fennel is outstanding! The cilantro elevated it even more. Will definately serve this to guests - it is dinner party worthy!

• debraandreno

• Langley, bc

• 3/2/2018

Quite bland, even though I used a combination of hot and smoked paprika, with too much sauce. Served over whole wheat couscous prepared with orange and pistachios.

• Anonymous

• Swarthmore

• 2/13/2017

I loved this! I am always looking for great recipes that use fennel because I'm a fan of fennel. I don't understand the reviews that say it has no flavor. What did they do? You can't use a whole fennel bulb and not get flavor! Then again, I tripled the cumin, and ground my own cumin seed, I doubled the cayenne, I quadrupled the paprika, and I added a whole preserved lemon (which is a lemon packed in salt). I also added artichoke hearts. It was very salty, but once I served over a bed of quinoa it was fine. If you want less salt, you could use water instead of chicken broth and rinse the olives well. I also added 1/3 of a red onion and cooked the quinoa with some cilantro.

• saranemone

• San Jose, CA

• 1/11/2016

My wife made this per instructions, guests had seconds! Great.

• bakenude

• Corona, CA

• 4/13/2015

Made this exactly as written, and the whole family loved it. There is also plenty of room to play with the flavors, whether it be more cayenne, more citrus, a blast of ras el hanout, etc. Wonderful weeknight dinner.

• SavoryGoodness

• Cartersville, USA

• 6/9/2014

Really great recipe! I added in half an onion and substituted 3 chicken breasts for the thighs. We served it with a Pinos Gris which was a great compliment to the dish. I think next time I will add a little bit of the wine so it goes even better!

• hapawoman

• 11/13/2013

I usually change various elements of recipes I find on here to put my own spin on a dish. However I did not change anything about this one and boy am I glad I didn't. Each ingredient had it's moment in the spotlight while eating this dish. This could easily be made into a larger portion for feeding 10 people.

• JC_Milam

• Tampa, FL

• 11/11/2013

This is one of the TASTIEST chicken recipes I have ever used! I served it over couscous. I love it so much I have started saving other recipes on this site and others that use fennel. I'm collecting all kinds of tagine recipes as well.

• ArtistDominic

• Brooklyn, NY

• 3/3/2013

all in all, worth repeating as is, though next time I may cut the cayenne in half. Definitely reminded me of morocco! I liked the fennel, but would maybe add more veggies -- zucchini, carrots -- to give it a bit more variety, and something like carrots would add a bit of sweet. saved it to the box!

• Anonymous

• boston ma

• 2/5/2012

I don't think this dish would win any beauty contests, and there was something about the flavors that I thought lacked savor. Overall, it was fine for a night and the leftovers will get eaten, but not really a keeper for me.

• Anonymous

• Portland, OR

• 6/28/2011

This dish is easy and very flavorful. We loved it. Thanks to the cook who suggested thickening with butter/flour mixture. It was a good final touch and also cut the sodium a bit, because I didn't have low sodium broth.

• Anonymous

• Dallas

• 5/22/2011

SOO good. Amazing so flavorful. I would make it again with garlic and white wine. But over all. so good.

• Anonymous

• quebec,canada

• 4/26/2011

Amazing loved it. It was a huge hit with my family. Even my kids loved it! Great to make in large batches.

• Anonymous

• los angles

• 4/24/2011

For the all the high-impact ingredients, there really wasn't much flavor to this dish.

• stephaniebeckner

• germany

• 3/9/2011