Chicken and Olive Tagine

This recipe is a cut out from a magazine, so I am afraid I have no clue where it initially came from, but, boy was it good. My mum especially loved the flavour of the chicken and olive, onion mix and so did I. Other members of my family enjoyed it too, but they preferred to remove the browned skin from the chicken, which worked well too. This freezes well and can be made in advance, it would be fine eaten hot, like I did or cold in a lunchbox or a picnic. This can be easily adapted to suit your needs, e.g veggie or gluten free, see below for ideas. Also, this could 100% be made with different olives if you wish and other meat substitutions such as pork or turkey could be added. I hope you enjoy!

 Dietary Info:
-Unsuitable for Vegans/Vegetarians {You could substitute the chicken for a plant based alternative such as: tofu, seitan, tempeh, some veggie sausages could be cooked separately and burgers too, chickpeas, lentils or other beans e.g kidney, black eyes, butter etc... and you could use vegetable stock in place of chicken stock}
-Dairy Free
-Contains Gluten {There are a whole range of gluten free cous cous's at loads of the major supermarkets, but if you can't find any online or in store, rice is gluten free or you could use a chickpea pasta or a flat bread, G-F of course and that would work well too}
-Contains Nuts {You could leave the almonds out, if you want a substitute use croutons}

Ingredients:
-2tsp ground ginger
-2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
-pinch of saffron {I used turmeric}
-2tbsp olive oil
-1.2kg/2lb 10oz chicken thighs {I used boned thighs}
-1 red onion
-250ml/8fl oz hot chicken stock, plus 375ml/13fl oz extra
-1/2tbsp freshly chopped flat-leaf parsley {If you don't have fresh herbs, like moi, you can use dried}
-1/2tbsp freshly chopped coriander, plus extra sprigs, to garnish {Same here, dried herbs work well too}
-90g/3+1/2oz green olives
-1/2 preserved lemon, chopped {I didn't have this, or lemon juice, so I added about a tsp of lime juice and it added the citrus that the recipe needed}
-275g/9+1/2oz couscous
-2tbsp currants
-25g/1oz flaked almonds, lightly toasted {I didn't bother toasting the almonds, I thought it was fine as it was}
-salt and freshly ground black pepper {Add to recipe whenever you wish, I like to season literally everything, so don't skimp on flavour}

Method:
1: Combine the ginger, garlic, saffron and half the oil in a large bowl. Add the chicken and toss to coat. Cover and set aside for 30mins, or chill overnight. {I did overnight}
2: Heat the remaining oil in a large heavy-based saucepan or tagine over a high-heat. Cook the chicken for 4-5min, turning, until brown. Remove from the pan. {You don't need the inside of the chicken to be cooked, just the skin browned. This is because, you will be cooking the inside later by boiling it and if you are boiling you wouldn't have otherwise got the brown skin, which makes it look nicer.}
3: Add the onion and cook for 1-2mins. {I added some salt and pepper here} Return the chicken to the pan along with the stock, herbs, olives and the preserved lemon. Bring to a boil, then turn the heat down to low, cover and simmer for 1hr or until the chicken is tender. {The chicken will be tender when the inside it white and has no pink in it at all, if there is pink you risk food poisoning as it is not cooked all the way through}
4: Meanwhile, put the couscous in a heatproof bowl. Pour over the extra stock and cover with a plate, stand for 5min, until the stock is absorbed. Fluff up with a fork and stir in the currants and almonds. Season with salt and pepper.
5: Garnish the tagine with coriander sprigs and serve with the couscous.

FREEZER TIP: Cool the cooked tagine and then transfer to a freezer-proof container and freeze. Defrost thoroughly, then reheat over a medium heat in a saucepan until piping hot throughout before following the recipe from step 4.

While you're here, I have a Pinterest for all my recipes where you can save them to boards for the future and categorise them into different types of recipe e.g Sunday Dinners, picnic ideas etc. My account is @hazellikestocook, or find the link below. Also, I have a whole blog post explaining this in more detail here and https://hazelscookingandbakingblog.blogspot.com/2021/02/pinterest.html. 
https://pin.it/5xDvARk - my profile

This recipe: https://pin.it/6XziLbz