I thawed chicken thighs for dinner today and it wasn’t until this afternoon that I even thought of what to do with them. I HATE cooking when I don’t have a plan to make something specific! But, I do enjoy cooking when I know exactly what I’m going to make to eat! You would think this would get me to make up a menu every week, and I have done so on occasion, but then I fall back into laziness and stopped making the menus. Anyway, I did remember this afternoon that I had just taken a cooking class that had chicken as an entree, so I got excited and pulled out the recipe. I have to use a Dutch over to cook my tagine, but I’m hoping to get a real tagine for Christmas this year.

Ingredients:

• 6-8 chicken thighs
• 2 tbsp coarse salt
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tsp crush garlic
• 1 large preserved lemon, pulp removed, rind rinsed, and quartered
• 1/3 cup water
• 2 tbsp saffron water
• 1 tsp ginger
• 1 tsp aniseed
• 2 lbs small fennel bulbs, trimmed, cut lengthwise into thin slices
• 18 green olives

Directions:

Soak chicken in salted water for up to 2 hours in the refrigerator.
Heat oil in a large skillet or Dutch oven over medium heat. Brown chicken until golden, without turning it. Remove from pan and set aside, reserving the oil in the pan. Note: if using skinless chicken pieces, skip this step.
Place the tagine base or Dutch over over medium heat (use a diffuser if using a tagine). Add the reserved oil, onion slices, garlic, preserved lemon rind, water, saffron water, ginger and aniseed. Stir once, then add chicken on top. Bring to a boil, cover, reduce heat, and cook for 25 minutes.
Preheat oven to 325ºF. Turn the chicken pieces over and bring juices back to a  boil. Add fennel and olives. Cover and place in over for 25-30 minutes.