Chicken With Preserved Lemons and Olives

Sarah!'s Note:

Adopted from the Recipezaar account. This is posted in response to a request for recipes using preserved lemon. I found it in the Seattle paper's archives, but it is originally from "The New Book of Middle Eastern Food"

• Total Time: 1 hrs 55 mins
• Prep Time: 10 mins
• Cook Time: 1 hrs 45 mins

Ingredients:

Servings: 4

• 3 ½-4 lbs chicken
• 3 tablespoons peanuts or 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 large onion , grated or very finely chopped
• 2 -3 garlic cloves , crushed
• ¼ teaspoon crushed saffron threads or ¼ teaspoon powdered saffron
• ½-¾ teaspoon ground ginger
• 1 ½ teaspoons cinnamon
• salt and pepper
• 1 -2 preserved lemon , peel of, rinsed and cut in quarters
• 12 green olives or 12 pale-brown olives , soaked in 2 changes of water for 1/2 hour

Directions:

1. Put the whole chicken in a saucepan with all ingredients except preserved lemons and olives.
2. Half-cover with water and simmer, covered, turning the chicken over a few times, and adding water if necessary, for about 1 1/2 hours, or until the chicken is so tender that the flesh pulls off the bone and the liquid is reduced to a thick sauce.
3. Throw the lemon peel and drained rinsed olives into the sauce for the last 15 minutes of cooking.
4. Some like to add the peel at the very end; some like to chop part of it up to flavor the sauce.
5. Cut the chicken into serving pieces and serve hot, with the sauce poured over.

Reviews

[JustJanS]

I realsise that Moxie posted this for a request and hasn't made this, so no fault of hers that there was a problem. When I half covered the chicken with water, covered the saucepan with a lid, there was no reduction of liquid in 1 1/2 hours-and certainly no need to add any extra water (step2). I added the lemon and olives for another 15 minutes then I had to remove the chicken, and set about reducing the liquid over a very high flame. This took an additional 1/2 hour. We had a very good but late dinner.

[chia]

i used almost the same ingredients... i used chicken breasts and fresh lemons, 1 sliced and 1/2 juiced . i cooked mine in a crockpot, on low for 6-8 hrs after browning with the spices, and added the lemon juice and 3/4 C water. added the olives and lemon slices for the last 20 minutes. very tasty