This Moroccan chicken recipe is wonderfully flavored! It's served with preserved lemon, green olives, and tomatoes. Pair it with couscous or rice for a fabulous meal.
It's a great recipe when you're looking to add more bold flavors to your dinner the whole family will enjoy. It comes together with juicy chicken, Moroccan spices tomatoes and a preserved lemon for the most amazing flavors.
If you love Middle Eastern and Mediterranean dishes, try some of my other favorite recipes - the best fattoush salad, hawaij chicken and rice, Turkish chicken kabobs, or mujaddara (lentils and rice).
Baked Moroccan Chicken Features
This is the best Moroccan chicken to make, if you don't have a tajine pot at home. It has all the flavors of Morrocan tajine, but you can cook it in a Dutch oven or other oven-safe pot.
The best thing about this dish is probably the preserved lemon. Preserved lemon is essentially a pickled lemon - it's used in North African cooking - and it has a lovely, briny citrus flavor. It adds a wonderful zing to the dish.
You serve it with white or brown rice, cauliflower rice, plain couscous, or pearl couscous for a hearty and delicious meal.
Authentic Moroccan Chicken Ingredients
- Ras el Hanout spice mix - Ras el Hanout may also be called Moroccan spice blend. It's a wonderfully flavored mix with over a dozen spices. You can make your own, or buy a blend from the store.
- Chicken thighs - Bone in and skin-on chicken thighs will have the best flavor.
- Olive oil - You'll use olive oil to brown the chicken. If you prefer, you can use another neutral cooking oil like avocado or vegetable oil.
- Yellow onion and fresh garlic - These aromatics will give this chicken a deep flavor. Don't skip them or replace them with dried ones.
- Saffron - You only need a pinch of saffron. If you don't have any on hand, you can leave it out, but it adds a nice light smokiness.
- Tomato paste - Tomato paste will mix with the broth and aromatics to form the flavorful base of the stew.
- Chicken stock - You can use stock or chicken broth for this recipe.
- Cherry tomatoes - The tomatoes will cook to flavor the stew and provide a burst of flavor in each tomato bite.
- Preserved lemon - Preserved lemons are lemons that are pickled in salt and their own juices. It's easy and worth it to make your own as they last a long time, but you can also purchase a jar. If you can't find them, you can use a little lemon zest instead, but I highly recommend the preserved lemons.
- Green olives - Use pitted olives to save time and avoid pits in your dish.
- Optional toppings - You can serve this dish with roughly chopped parsley or cilantro to top and serve with lemon slices.
See the recipe card for quantities.
What to Serve with Moroccan Chicken
- This saucy dish is delicious on a bed of couscous or rice.
- Make a simple salad with this Citrus Honey Salad Dressing
- Pair it with a tomato-heavy Mediterranean Salad
- Serve it alongside a chopped Arabic Salad; a simple dish with chopped tomatoes, cucumbers, and onions.
If you try this preserved lemon and tomato chicken, let me know! Connect with me on Instagram and share your photos, or leave a rating.
Moroccan Chicken Recipe
Ingredients
- 3 pounds chicken thighs bone-in, skin on
- 1 ½ tablespoons Ras el Hanout spice blend
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 medium yellow onion thinly sliced
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- pinch saffron
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste
- 2 cups chicken stock
- 2 cups cherry tomatoes
- 1 preserved lemon diced
- ¾ cup pitted green olives
- optional - roughly chopped parsley and lemon slices for garnish
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Coat the chicken in the Ras el Hanout spice.
- Heat the olive oil in a dutch oven or other oven-safe pot over medium-high heat. When the oil is hot, add half the chicken skin side down and brown for 3 minutes, then flip and brown for another 2 minutes. Remove chicken and set aside. Repeat with the remaining chicken and remove it from the pot.
- Add the onions to the pot with the leftover chicken juices and cook for 5 minutes or until translucent and slightly browned, stirring occasionally.
- Add the garlic and stir for 30 seconds. Then add the saffron and tomato paste and stir till combined.
- Add the chicken stock and cherry tomatoes. Then nestle the chicken thighs in the pot, covering with as much of the juice, tomatoes, and onions as possible.
- Cover the pot and put in the oven to cook for 20 minutes. Add the preserved lemon and green olives to the pot and cook, covered, for another 20 minutes.
- Serve the chicken with a side of rice or couscous and topped with optional cilantro or parsley.
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