CHICKEN AND WINTER SQUASH TAGINE

Makes 6 servings

Tagines (ta-jheens) — stews — are best known and most treasured in North

Africa. A little French, a little African, a little Middle Eastern, they are

recognized for their slightly sweet spices, their heady aromas, their

versatility — they can be based on meat, fish, fowl or vegetables — and the

fact that they are traditionally cooked in a pot that carries their name. A

tagine is a wide, shallow, round vessel, often made of flameproof pottery,

with a cover that looks like a chimney pot or a dunce cap. It’s tall and swoops

up into a point, and its purpose is to trap every droplet of steam and to send

it back down into the stew. But if you don’t have a tagine, you can use a

Dutch oven.

This particular tagine, combining chicken, slow-cooked onions and

chunks of acorn squash, comes more from my imagination and what I have

in the pantry than it does from heritage, but the lead seasoning, ras el

hanout, originated in Morocco, deep in the heart of tagine country. Ras el

hanout translates from the Arabic as “head of the shop,” suggesting that it is

blended from the best spices. As with garam masala, which has the same

soft-spice sensibility, and which can be substituted, there are many spices in

ras el hanout — and I’d doubt any mixture is the same as any other — but

you’ll be able to pick out some by scent: cumin and cloves, for sure, and often

allspice, cardamom, ginger, chiles and peppers.

About ¼ cup (60 ml) olive oil, or more if needed

2 large onions, halved, thinly sliced, rinsed and patted dry

2 tablespoons water

Fine sea salt

12 chicken pieces, preferably skin-on, bone-in thighs and drumsticks, patted dry

Freshly ground pepper

1 small acorn squash, scrubbed

2 tablespoons ras el hanout (see headnote) or (see garam masala)

1 tablespoon honey

1½ teaspoons ground sumac or finely grated zest of 1 large lemon

2 wide strips lemon zest (if using sumac)

1 teaspoon ground turmeric

¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper

2 cups (480 ml) chicken broth

Juice of 1 large lemon (optional)

Pour 2 tablespoons of the oil into a large tagine or a Dutch oven and warm

over medium heat. Add the onions, stirring to coat them with oil, then stir in

the water and season with salt. Cover the pot, reduce the heat to low and

cook, stirring now and then, until they are very soft but haven’t colored,

about 30 minutes. This long, gentle cooking brings out their flavor.

Meanwhile, brown the chicken: Working in a large skillet, preferably

nonstick, over medium heat, warm the remaining 2 tablespoons oil. Add the

chicken pieces — do this in batches if it looks like cooking them all at once

will crowd the pan, adding more oil if needed — and cook until golden brown

on all sides, about 4 minutes per side. Transfer the chicken to a large plate

and season with salt and pepper.

Trim the squash, halve it from top to bottom and scoop out and discard

the seeds and strings (or clean the seeds and save to roast). Cut the squash

into 8 wedges and then, depending on the length of the wedges, cut each into

2 or 3 pieces. You want the pieces to be chunks that are easy to eat.

Remove the cover of the tagine or Dutch oven, increase the heat to

medium and season the onions with pepper. Stir in the ras el hanout or

garam masala, honey, sumac or grated zest, strips of lemon zest (if using

sumac), turmeric, 1 teaspoon salt and the cayenne. Stir to blend the spices

evenly into the onions and then pour in the broth. Arrange the chicken

pieces skin side up in the pot (discard any liquid that accumulated on the

plate) and fit the squash among the chicken pieces — don’t worry if the

liquid doesn’t cover the chicken and squash; everything will still cook evenly

and be moist.

Bring the liquid to a boil, then lower the heat, cover the pot and simmer

gently but steadily for about 45 minutes, until the chicken is fall-off-thebone

soft and the squash is fork-tender. If you can, resist the urge to peek

while the tagine is simmering — you want to keep all the aromatic steam in

the pot and around the chicken.

Taste for salt and pepper and, if you’d like, add a squeeze of lemon juice.

The liquid in the pot will be thin (like jus) but full of flavor. If you cooked

this in a tagine, bring the pot to the table; if you used a Dutch oven, transfer

the chicken, onions and squash to a large serving platter or bowl, spoon over

the jus and serve.

S TO R I N G : You can keep the tagine covered overnight in the refrigerator and

reheat it the next day, but nothing beats having this dish freshly made.

C H O I C E S : On weekdays, I serve the tagine with plain couscous. When I’ve

got more time — or when I’ve got guests — I add chickpeas and sometimes

toasted sliced almonds to the couscous and make a sprinkle-overeverything

mix of chopped cilantro and parsley, grated lemon zest and a

little finely chopped ginger. Think North African gremolata.