Chicken and Green Olive Tagine

I love tagines - the exciting Moroccan flavours aren't quite like anything else I've ever tasted. They really know how to mix spicy, sweet, savoury and sour.

This is another great dish to cook if you have people coming over; you just throw everything in the pan, put it in the oven and forget about it until you're ready to eat. You can double or even triple this recipe if you're feeding a crowd - just be careful with the spices, and do it by taste.

This works well with plain cous cous (which is what I'm eating it with tonight), or you could jazz up your cous cous with pomegranate seeds and chopped mint, or serve with rice.

This also keeps and freezes brilliantly, in fact it tastes better a day later, so best to make more than you need! Also, you don't need an actual tagine to make this - you can use a casserole dish - but I'm fortunate enough to have been given one as a gift by a lovely sister one Christmas.

The recipe below will serve at least 4.

Chicken and Green Olive Tagine
650g skinless chicken thighs (bone in or bone out is fine)
2 tbsps olive oil
2 onions
3 cloves garlic
2 tbsps ras-el-hanout
1 tsp ground ginger
1 cinnamon stick
2 preserved lemons
2 tbsps runny honey
150g pitted green olives
2 x 400g tins chopped tomatoes

1. Preheat the oven to 160 degrees.
2. Put the chicken thighs and olive oil in a casserole dish on the hob on a high heat and sizzle until browned on all sides.
3. Add the chopped onions and garlic and cook for a further 2 minutes, stirring to ensure it doesn't stick.
4. Add the ras-el-hanout, ginger, cinnamon, chopped lemons, honey and olives. Stir well.
5. Tip in the chopped tomatoes and 200ml cold water, stir, season with salt to taste, then put the lid on and transfer to the oven for around 30-40 minutes, until the chicken is falling apart.