Moroccan Chicken With Olives and Preserved Lemons

 

3 cloves garlic, minced

¼ teaspoon saffron

½  teaspoon minced ginger

1 teaspoon sweet paprika

½ teaspoon ground cumin

1/4 teaspoon turmeric

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 chicken, cut in 8 to 10 pieces

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 lg. Vidalia onions, sliced thin

1 cinnamon stick

8 calamata olives, pitted and halved 

8 green olives, pitted and halved

1 lg. or 3 small preserved lemons *

1 cup chicken stock

Juice of ½ lemon

1 tablespoon chopped flat-leaf parsley

Mix garlic, saffron, ginger, paprika, cumin and turmeric together. If not using kosher chicken, add ½ teaspoon salt. Add pepper to taste. Rub chicken with mixture, cover, refrigerate and marinate 3 to 4 hours.

Heat oil in wok. Add chicken, and brown on all sides. Remove to platter. 

Add onions and cook over medium about 15 minutes, until lightly browned. Add a cinnamon stick. Put chicken back on onions. Scatter with olives. Quarter the lemons, remove pulp and cut skin in strips. Scatter over chicken. Mix stock and lemon juice. Pour over chicken.

Cover and cook over low heat about 30 minutes, until chicken is done. Scatter parsley on top, and serve.

* This lemons a simple to make, you need nothing more than a jar with a lid, lemons, sterile water, and kosher salt.

Cut lemons in halves, stuff if jar, add some salt ( two tsp.), add another lemon, stuff, add salt, repeat. When full of lemons, pour in water til the jar is full to the top. Put on lid, and wait six month til done.