Second Time Around Chicken Tagine

While the weather on Mothers Day was cold and rainy, my spirits lifted when my husband said we could take a picnic to a park with a shelter. There were plenty of leftovers from the scrumptious Moroccan stew I'd made the night before.  I cut up and heated the vegetables with the infused spices-put those in a thermos and served the chicken cold. This was a meal where seconds are a must!

Chicken Tagine

(Serves 4-6)

Grease pot with olive oil spray.  Place assorted vegetables in bottom of pot.  Add water.

3/4 cup red peas, cooked

(red peas are a legume similar to black-eyed peas)

1/3 cup onion, cubed

1 lemon, quartered

6 carrots, peeled and quartered

6 new potatoes, halved

1/4 fennel bulb, sliced

1/2 cup sugar snap peas

1/3 cup green pitted olives

2 mini sweet peppers, cut in 2 inch chunks

1/4 cup cilantro, snipped

1 teaspoon fresh mint, snipped

1 cup water

Mix spices in a ziploc bag.  Cut chicken in pieces to fit the remainder of the casserole dish.  Place chicken pieces in bag and shake to coat with spices.  Place chicken breasts skin side down in casserole dish.  Add lid.

1 teaspoon paprika

1/2 teaspoon caraway seed

1/4 teaspoon coriander

1/2 teaspoon cumin

1/2 teaspoon turmeric

1/4 teaspoon cardamom

1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1/8 teaspoon cinnamon

1-4 pound roasting chicken, backbone removed

Bake at 325 F. for until internal temperature of chicken breast reaches 165 F. Test the temperature of the chicken beginning  1 hour after placing in the oven. The chicken may reach temperature before the vegetables are of preferred doneness. For this meal, I removed the chicken 30 minutes before removing the vegetables.

Today's picnic was at Mason Dixon Park near Core, West Virginia.  The grass is green and cut.  There are bathrooms with running water and several shelters to take cover. Even the birds nesting in the shelter did not mind our presence!