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Halal-conscious recipe

Chicken tagine with lemons, olives and pomegranate

Cassie Best's one-pot chicken tagine with Halal chicken: thighs browned, then baked with onion, a homemade Moroccan spice mix, preserved lemon, tomato, honey and stock, finished with olives, lemon, pomegranate, feta and mint.

  • Cuisine Moroccan
  • Meal Main
  • Difficulty Easy
  • Yield 4 to 5 portions
  • Time 1h 40m
  • Last updated

Each method follows published technique for the dish, and every Halal substitution is checked against the ingredient pages we cite. Photographs come from our ingredient library rather than the finished dish.

Printable view
Green beans, carrots and potatoes layered in a metal tagine base, ready to cook
Photograph from our ingredient library: vegetables layered in a tagine before cooking, not the finished dish from this recipe.

Photo: Ridouan Red · CC BY-SA 4.0

Why Halal checks matter here

The tagine is 8 chicken thighs, which are Halal only from Halal-slaughtered birds, cooked with a chicken stock cube and a tablespoon of red wine vinegar, and topped with feta, whose rennet decides it.

This one-pot tagine browns eight chicken thighs until crisp, then bakes them on a sauce of onion, a homemade Moroccan spice mix, preserved lemon, tomato, honey, stock and a splash of vinegar. Olives and lemon slices go on for the last 20 minutes, and pomegranate seeds, feta and mint go on at the end. Four things need checking: the chicken; the stock cube (Halal-certified or vegetable; see stock cubes); the red wine vinegar, a scholarly difference (see red wine vinegar), for which our swap is lemon juice; and the feta, which should be made with microbial or vegetarian rennet.

It follows Cassie Best's chicken tagine with lemons, olives and pomegranate for BBC Good Food, which serves four to five. The spice mix makes more than you need; the rest keeps in a jar for up to six months.

Serve with couscous.

Halal-critical ingredients

  • Chicken thighs Chicken is a Halal bird, but slaughter decides, and chicken without a Halal mark doesn't say how the bird was slaughtered. Buy the chicken from a Halal butcher or in a certified pack. See Chicken.
  • Chicken stock cube The UK's mainstream chicken stock cubes contain uncertified chicken or chicken fat. Use a Halal-certified chicken stock cube or a vegan vegetable one. See Stock cubes.
  • Red wine vinegar Wine vinegar is a scholarly difference: the Hanafi school, Indonesia's MUI and IslamQA permit it, while the classical Shafi'i rule and Malaysia's 2006 fatwa do not. Use it only if your school accepts it, or use lemon juice instead (our swap). See Red wine vinegar.
  • Feta The rennet decides cheese: microbial, plant or Halal-slaughtered animal rennet is fine, while other animal rennet is a known difference of opinion. Use a feta labelled vegetarian or made with microbial rennet. See Rennet.

Safe substitutes

  • Chicken thighs of unknown slaughter → Halal chicken thighs
  • A mainstream chicken stock cube → A Halal-certified chicken stock cube or a vegetable one
  • 1 tbsp red wine vinegar, if your school doesn't accept it → 1 tbsp lemon juice (our swap)

Allergens

milk (feta)

Ingredients

Moroccan spice mix

  • 2 tbsp coriander seeds
  • 1 tbsp cumin seeds
  • 1½ tsp fennel seeds
  • ½ tsp black pepper
  • ¼ tsp ground ginger
  • 1 tsp ground cinnamon
  • good pinch saffron

Tagine

  • 2 tbsp olive oil
  • 8 Halal chicken thighs
  • 1 onion, chopped
  • 2 garlic cloves
  • 1 large or 2 small preserved lemons, skin only, finely chopped
  • 2 large tomatoes, chopped
  • 1 Halal-certified or vegetable stock cube
  • 1 tbsp honey
  • 1 tbsp red wine vinegar (see the vinegar check below)
  • 750 ml water
  • handful olives
  • 1 small lemon, half very thinly sliced

To finish

  • ½ pomegranate, seeds only
  • 100 g feta, crumbled (microbial or vegetarian rennet)
  • small bunch mint, leaves only
  • to serve couscous

Method

  1. Make the spice mix. Toast the coriander, cumin and fennel seeds in a dry frying pan for 1 to 2 minutes until fragrant, then grind to a powder. Mix in the pepper, ginger, cinnamon and saffron. You need 2 tbsp; the rest keeps in a jar in a cool, dark place for up to 6 months.
  2. Brown the chicken. Heat 1 tbsp oil in a wide, shallow ovenproof casserole. Season the chicken and cook skin side down for 8 to 10 minutes until crisp, then turn and cook for 5 minutes more. Set aside. Heat the oven to 170°C (150°C fan, gas 3).
  3. Bake. Add the rest of the oil and the onion to the pan and stir for a few minutes, then add the garlic and 2 tbsp spice mix, scraping up the bits from the bottom until the spices smell fragrant. Add the preserved lemon, tomatoes, stock cube, honey, vinegar and 750 ml water and bring to the boil. Put the chicken on top, cover with a lid or foil and bake for 1 hour.
  4. Finish and serve. Uncover, lay the olives and lemon slices on top, drizzle the lemon with a little oil and bake for 20 minutes more, until the sauce has reduced a little. Check the seasoning, adding lemon, honey or salt if needed. Scatter with the pomegranate seeds, feta and mint and serve with couscous.

How this recipe was researched

Method adapted from BBC Good Food's 'Chicken tagine with lemons, olives & pomegranate' by Cassie Best, which uses a Moroccan spice mix (serves 4 to 5: spice mix of 2 tbsp coriander seeds, 1 tbsp cumin seeds and 1½ tsp fennel seeds toasted 1 to 2 minutes and ground, with ½ tsp black pepper, ¼ tsp ground ginger, 1 tsp ground cinnamon and a good pinch of saffron; 8 seasoned chicken thighs cooked skin side down 8 to 10 minutes in 1 tbsp olive oil in a wide ovenproof casserole, turned for 5 minutes and set aside; oven at 170°C (150°C fan, gas 3); a chopped onion in the rest of the oil, 2 garlic cloves and 2 tbsp of the spice mix; the finely chopped skin of 1 large or 2 small preserved lemons, 2 large chopped tomatoes, a chicken stock cube, 1 tbsp honey, 1 tbsp red wine vinegar and 750 ml water brought to the boil, the chicken on top, covered and baked 1 hour; a handful of olives and half a small lemon, thinly sliced, added on top with a drizzle of oil, uncovered 20 minutes more; seasoned with lemon, honey or salt; finished with the seeds of ½ pomegranate, 100 g crumbled feta and a small bunch of mint; served with couscous; the leftover spice mix keeps 6 months in a jar). We specified Halal chicken thighs and a Halal-certified or vegetable stock cube, flagged the red wine vinegar per school with lemon juice as our swap, and asked for a feta made with microbial or vegetarian rennet. Timings follow the published technique rather than a kitchen test.

Technique and ingredient sources

  1. Chicken tagine with lemons, olives & pomegranate — BBC Good Food Retrieved:

    By Cassie Best, with a homemade Moroccan spice mix. Serves 4 to 5, prep 10 minutes, cook 1 hour 30 minutes: browned chicken thighs baked 1 hour at 170°C on onion, spice mix, preserved lemon, tomato, stock, honey and vinegar, then 20 minutes uncovered with olives and lemon; pomegranate, feta and mint to finish. We specified Halal chicken and stock and flagged the vinegar and feta.

  2. Tagine analysis — isithalal.food Retrieved:

    What to check in a tagine: the meat and the stock.

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