Visiting Morocco Again...

Chicken tagine tonight!  It was fantastic.  Sweet, savory, and hearty.

Here's what you'll need:

2 cups Chicken Broth

2 Tbsp Tomato Paste

2 Tablespoons Lemon Juice

2 Tablespoons All-Purpose Flour

2 Teaspoons Garlic Salt (**I didn't have garlic salt!  I used 1 clove of garlic and a pinch of salt)

1-1/2 Teaspoon Ground Cumin

1-1/2 Teaspoon Ground Ginger

1 Teaspoon Cinnamon

3/4 Teaspoon Ground Black Pepper

Whisk together all of the above ingredients in a bowl and set aside.

NEXT!

4 Large Carrots, thinly sliced

2 Large Onions, thinly sliced (I just used one large one...)

1/2 cup Dried Cranberries (didn't have these, I used raisins, craisins would have been way awesome!)

1/2 cup Dried Apricots, chopped or sliced

I used extra raisins :)

NEXT!!

1 Eggplant, cut into 1-inch cubes

8 Skinless, Boneless Chicken Thighs, cut into 1-inch pieces

I trimmed a lot of the excess fat off (obviously).  And, if I could recommend anything, add extra chicken thighs and don't use chicken breast!  The texture of the chicken thighs was fantastic in this dish.

Take 2 - 3 tablespoons of olive oil and heat it over medium/high heat in a skillet.  Place the chicken and eggplant pieces in the heated oil.

Stir and cook until the chicken is browned on all sides but NOT cooked all the way through.  Remove the skillet from the heat.

Place the browned chicken and eggplant on the bottom of a slow cooker.

Layer the onion, carrots, dried cranberries (or raisins), and apricots over the chicken mixture.

Whisk the liquid mixture once more and pour over the top of the veggies and chicken mixture.

Here's Zeus keeping an eye on the chikkunz :)

Cook on high setting for 5 hours, or low setting for 8 hours.

I chose the low setting, personally.  I think that cooking on high cooks everything too fast,

dries it out and burns the food.

Stir it about half-way through.

NEXT!!

You will need some couscous!

1 Cup of it to be exact, but I'd do more because we hardly had any left after dinner.

Cook according to package.

(If you can't find plain couscous, just buy a box of it but don't add the flavor package :)  )

My bad - we were so hungry we ate right away and I forgot to take pictures of our plates.  Here it is in the Tupperware ;)

I chopped up two sweet potatoes into about 1-inch chunks, put a dollop of Promise butter, 2 Tbsp brown sugar, drizzled a little honey and sprinkled some cinnamon on top and put it in a small glass dish, covered it and put it in the microwave for 7 minutes (or until soft).  It was sweet and really complimented the tagine.  I put the rest of them (and the liquid) on top of the left overs.  It was really delicious together  :)

All in all:  AWESOME dinner - I think next time I'd add a can of chickpeas (rinsed) and 2 small chopped sweet potatoes to the crock pot...  Although, I'd still make some for a side ;)

Here's your ingredients so you don't have to go back up and re-write everything down:

2 - 3 Tablespoons Olive Oil

8 Skinless, Boneless Chicken Thighs, cut into 1-inch pieces

1 Eggplant, cut into 1-inch cubes

2 Large Onions, thinly sliced

4 Large Carrots, thinly sliced

1/2 Cup Dried Cranberries (or raisins)

1/2 Cup Dried Apricots, chopped or sliced

2 Cups Chicken Broth

2 Tablespoons Tomato Paste

2 Tablespoons Lemon Juice

2 Tablespoons All-Purpose Flour

2 Teaspoons Garlic Salt (or 1 clove of garlic and a pinch of salt)

1-1/2 Teaspoons Ground Cumin

1-1/2 Teaspoons Ground Ginger

1 Teaspoon Cinnamon

3/4 Teaspoon Ground Black Pepper

Couscous

***I forgot to add that I did put in a couple dashes of cayenne pepper and a couple dashes of red chili powder just so there was a bit of spice to this.  It wasn't spicy, but had a little warmth to it.