Chickpea and Chicken Tagine

Good old Mark Bittman. In the blogosphere and elsewhere, he really can do no wrong. If you haven't heard of his tome, How to Cook Everything, you may be living under a rock. I own a copy of his vegetarian cookbook, appropriately named How to Cook Everything Vegetarian. I don't use it very often, but it is wonderful for basics, like pan fried potatoes (ridiculously delicious), french toast, etc. He did this entertaining travel/food show on PBS with Gwyneth Paltrow and Mario Batali a couple years back (I wonder if this was before GOOP?). The three of them ate and drank their way around Spain. Paltrow asked ridiculous questions, Batali was off trying to take over the cooking from whatever Spaniard was doing it and Bittman just calmly explained everything. Worth a watch if you should find it and are bored.

Simmering away

Anyway, I made his recipe for an expedited tagine last Friday: Chickpea Tagine with Chicken and Apricots. I do not have a tagine and have no plans to buy one, so I was happy that this recipe calls for a large pot instead. Now, if you know my husband, you will know that a tagine is a pretty exotic concept for Marshal "Steak and Potatoes" Mike. But he ate it, and may have even liked it.

 Cat dish makes an appearance again!

I thought the final dish was ok. The house smelled amazing when it was cooking and the sauce straight out of the pan was so flavorful and yummy. But I found the final product lacking. I have never had chicken thighs before (at least to my knowledge) and I thought they had no flavor whatsoever. I couldn't find skinless ones, but I thought the skin would add some flavor and at least keep them moist (we just peeled it off before we ate it), but no luck. I would make it again, because it felt healthy and I liked the way it smelled. MM asked for chicken breast next time, so maybe we will try that.