omg, food!

[schmerica]

Return of grocery money = return of cooking posts. Yay!

Chicken and Lentil Tagine, from The Best Recipes in the World by Mark Bittman

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
One 3 to 4 pound chicken, cut into serving pieces, or 2 1/2 to 3 pounds chicken parts, trimmed of excess fat
2 garlic cloves, sliced
2 onions, sliced
2 tomatoes, cored and chopped
2 teaspoons ground turmeric
Salt and black pepper to taste
1 large bunch fresh cilantro or parsley sprigs, tied together with kitchen string
2 cinnamon sticks
1 cup dried lentils, picked over

1. Put the oil in a deep skillet or flameproof casserole, preferably nonstick, with a lid. Place over medium-high heat and wait a minute or so, until the oil is hot. Add the chicken, skin side down, and brown it well, rotating and turning the pieces as necessary, 10 to 15 minutes.

2. Stir in the garlic, onions, tomatoes, turmeric, and some salt and pepper. Pour in 1 quart of water, along with the herb bundle and cinnamon sticks. Cover, turn the heat to low, and simmer for about 20 minutes.

3. Add the lentils, cover, and simmer until they're soft, about 25 minutes more. Discard the cilantro bundle and cinnamon sticks, season to taste with salt and pepper, and serve. (You can prepare the dish up to this point and let it sit for a few hours or cover and refrigerate for up to a day before reheating and serving; you may have to add a little water to thin the sauce a bit.)

Notes:

+ My cooking time was considerably longer than the times above; when I checked the lentils after 25 minutes, they were still mostly hard. I suspect this is just a problem with my burners, though, because I think having it at low didn't let it simmer enough -- there weren't bubbles constantly through it. I raised the heat and the end and cooked it longer, and it was fine. Next time I'll probably adjust the heat more during the earlier stages of cooking to make sure the simmer is constant.

+ The herb bundle was really hard to remove.

+ Very tasty, and very filling -- both the lentils and chicken on filling are their own, obviously, and together it's even more so. I had some crusty french bread with it, as well, which stretched it further. (The bread dipped into the juices? Probably the best part. Yum.)

+ Not too expensive, either, all things considered. The cinnamon sticks and the parsley were the only things I don't normally have on hand more or less. The cinnamon sticks were a little pricy, but I imagine the jar will last quite a while

Comments

[mergatrude.livejournal.com]

This sounds very nice. I've done the metric conversions, but wonder what type of lentils you used. We have red, brown and yellow here. Brown and yellow ones you usually soak before cooking.

[blacksquirrel.livejournal.com]

Thank you for posting that - will add to my recipe file

[pearl-o.livejournal.com]

Hmm, both the cookbook and the bag I bought both just label them as plain "lentils". I'm pretty sure they're just the most common brown kind, but they don't require any soaking because they cook quite quickly.