Maiden Voyage: Tagine, Chicken with Forty Garlic Cloves

One evening I went to a friend's home for dinner and had the best chicken ever! She brought it out in an odd cooking vessel that I had never seen before. Me, being an armature foodie who loves gadgets said, "I gotta get myself one of those". Oh btw one of those is a Tagine a Moroccan clay cooking pot. I did a bunch of research on tagines and I decided to make a trip to Sur La Table to purchase one. The clay pot that Sur La Table has is glazed throughout and later I learned that the inside dome should not be glazed because the unglazed dome will absorb both flavors and moisture and this is a good thing! A tagine must be seasoned. That one took a trip to the library to learn how! I brushed olive oil on the tagine and put it in a cold oven, set it to 300 and let the tagine bake for 2 hours. This will prevent it from cracking.

So now on to making something in this wacky clay pot!

1 whole chicken

or

3 pounds chicken pieces

1/2 lemon

salt and freshly ground pepper

2 bouquets garni (4 sprigs thyme, 2 bay leaves, 4 sprigs rosemary, 6 sage leaves)

1/2 cup olive oil

30 to 40 garlic cloves UN-PEELED (The unpeeled part because I did not read this and I spent 2o min peeling)

1 cup chicken broth as needed

Rub the lemon all over the chicken inside and out. Tuck one Bouquet Garni along with the lemon inside. Now heat the evoo in a skillet and saute the garli

c for a bit. Turn the whole chicken in the oil until lightly colored

Put the bird into the tagine and add the bouquet garni and cover with the lid. Pop it into a 350 degree oven for an hour check it after 30 to see if you need to add some broth.

Okay so I am not very good at reading directions... I did not

brown my chicken! (bad Becky, bad Becky) however it was an amazing chicken and The garlic cloves are wonderful spread on a whole wheat pita or bread of your choice.

a note about the sir la table tagine

So there is a major design flaw in this tagine.

When it's hot it is almost impossible to take the lid off! My brother-in-law made a modification that made all the difference! He added a wire to the top so I could have something to grab so I could get the lid off. I am not sure what Sir La Table was thinking with this one.