For our 4th recipe from the Disney cookbook, we decided to make Chicken Tajine with preserved lemons and olives. This recipe is served in the Moroccan Restaurant in Epcot. This recipe takes its name from the vessel used to cook the food. A Tagine is made of a wide base that is covered with a cone-shaped lit. the cone-shaped lid helps keep the heat circulating around the food. Here is a whole post about the Tagines that are sold in the Moroccan pavilion from the Disney Food Blog. We don’t have a Tagine so we weren’t sure what to cook this recipe in. I considered using a frying pan but concerned that there was too much liquid. I eventually used a big soup pot but I think that ended up being a mistake.

All of the ingredients

We went out of our way to find the preserved lemons. We did end up finding them at a local ethnic foods store. The lemons are so small!

I used Kalamata olives because they are my favorite.

The chicken was cooked in this liquid about 45 minutes. Afterwards, the chicken was removed and the sauce was simmered for a few minutes.

There was more sauce than the recipe indicated. I think this was due to the type of cooking vessel that was used. I don’t think the large pot allowed enough of the water to evaporate. We found that the chicken was beautifully cooked but we wished the sauce was a little thicker and more flavorful. I loved the addition of the preserved lemons and olives but the sauce and chicken did not really have the flavor of either because they did not cook in the solution for very long.

This was a good dish and I think we might make it again in the future. I would make some changes to the preparation but overall we really liked this dish.