Chicken And Date Tagine

Total Time: 1 hr 30 mins Preparation Time: 10 mins Cook Time: 1 hr 20 mins

Ingredients

• Servings: 4
• 8 chicken thighs, on the bone, skin on
• 1 small butternut squash, peeled and cut into chunks
• 1 red onion, cut into wedges
• 300 ml chicken stock
• 400 g cherry tomatoes
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 8 medjool dates, halved
• coriander leaves, from a large bunch
• 1 small red onion, roughly chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
• thumb sized piece gingerroot, roughly chopped
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 2 teaspoons paprika
• 1 teaspoon mild chili powder
• coriander, roots from a large bunch
• 1 lemon, zested and juiced
• olive oil

Recipe

• 1 heat the oven to 190c/fan 170c/gas 5.
• 2 put all the spice paste ingredients in a small food processor with 2 tbsp olive oil and whizz to a paste.
• 3 brown the chicken thighs all over in a tagine or large, wide pan.
• 4 scoop out then add the spice paste and cook for a few minutes until fragrant.
• 5 add the squash, onion, stock, tomatoes and cinnamon and stir.
• 6 sit the chicken on top (push down a bit into the sauce). cook uncovered in the oven for 40 mins then add the dates and cook for anothe r20 minutes - the chicken should be browned and cooked and the sauce reduced.
• 7 scatter with coriander and serve with buttered couscous.