Are you looking for inspiration for your cooking? I have an amazing option for you: Traditional Tunisian chicken tajine! It’s a simple and super delicious egg dish. It works perfectly as a takeaway lunch, as a weekday dinner, or as a party snack. The best part is that also kids love it. So, scroll down, and I will tell you a little bit more about this very traditional Tunisian dish. And of course, I am also going to share the traditional Tunisian chicken tajine recipe with you.
What is Tunisian tajine?
A tajine is a dish that is served in North African countries: Algeria, Libya, Morocco, and Tunisian. The Tunisian version of this dish is very different compared to others. It has nothing to do with slowly cooked stews and clay cooking pots. When discovering the Tunisian tajine for the first time you might be surprised as it looks something like a thick omelet, Italian frittata, or Spanish omelet.
There is a couple of different versions of Tunisian tajine. The most classic Tunisian tajine is made of eggs, potatoes, onion, garlic, parsley, grated cheese, happy cow cheese, salt, pepper, and turmeric. Then according to your preference, you add chicken, tuna, minced meat, or spinach. This dish is a very typical everyday food in Tunisian homes, and it is super delicious!
The other tajine and more elegant version of it is called a tajine El-Bey. You recognize it of three separate layers made of beef, spinach, and ricotta. El-Bey is often served on special occasions like weddings, but also some restaurants are selling it. The third version is tajine malsouka/ malsou9a. It resembles a lot of the traditional tajine, but it’s covered with a malsouka pastry (similar to filo pastry) which makes it crispy.
Ingredients for Traditional Tunisian chicken tajine
Chicken is the main ingredient in chicken tajine (surprise ah-hah). Feel free to use your leftover chicken, chicken breast, or chicken things. If the chicken isn’t for you, substitute it with tuna, shrimps, minced meat, or spinach.
Onion and garlic are common ingredients in Tunisian cuisine. For a change, substitute white onion with red onion, shallots, or spring onions. An amount of garlic can be increased or decreased depending on your own preferences.
Potatoes can be steamed, boiled, or deep-fried. Regularly, the potatoes are deep-fried for tajine. . The leftover potatoes work perfectly well also. Cut potatoes into small or medium size cubes, triangles, or circles.
Cheese brings the flavor in Tunisian chicken tajine. Choose your favorite grated cheese, Emmental, or mozzarella for this recipe. The traditional tajine includes happy cow/ laughing cow cheese, it’s cream cheese and so delicious! So, please don’t skip this. Use the rest of the happy cow cheese in cream sauces, between the sandwiches or crepes, in pasta dishes, or lasagna.
Parsley is an essential part of this dish. For this recipe, choose Italian flat-leaf parsley. Great alternatives for parsley are chervil, tarragon, oregano, chive, cilantro, or basil.
In traditional Tunisian chicken tajine, used spices are healthy and golden-colored turmeric, paprika powder, salt, and black pepper. In addition, you can try to use spices like cumin, caraway, dried thyme, coriander, and chili flakes.
Eggs are the base of the Tunisian Tajine and combine all the ingredients together. As eggs are the key ingredient in this recipe, I recommend using organic eggs!
A couple of tips to make the best tajine
- Try to substitute chicken with tuna, shrimps, minced meat, or spinach.
- Tunisian tajine is gluten-free and nut-free. That makes it a great dish for the people who are following a special diet.
- Might be that you have some leftover chicken from yesterday? This is a perfect dish to use it!
- The dish itself is quite healthy. If you want to make it even healthier, choose a cheese with low-fat content, and instead of deep-frying the potatoes boil or steam them.
- Willing to add some more flavor in Traditional Tunisian chicken tajine? Try to add black olives, capers, harissa, tomato paste, or hardboiled eggs.
- Some people like to add dry yeast to make tajine a bit fluffier.
Recipe for Traditional Tunisian chicken tajine
Servings: 5-6
Total preparation time: 1 hour
Ingredients for the recipe
200 g of chicken (leftover or breast), cut into cubes
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 onion, peeled and chopped
2 garlic cloves, peeled and grated
1 tbsp turmeric
1 tsp paprika powder
1 tsp salt
½ tsp black pepper
2 dl of water
3 small or 1 big potato, peeled and cut into small cubes
1dl vegetable oil (suitable for deep frying)
100g cheese (Emmental, Mozzarella), grated
2 happy cow cheese triangles, cut into small pieces
1 small bunch of parsley, chopped
8 eggs
Serve with: harissa
Cooking method for Tunisian tajine
- Place a non-stick frying pan on medium heat with 1tbsp of vegetable oil. Add chopped onion and 2 grated cloves of garlic. Keep stirring regularly and cook for a couple of minutes, until softened. Then add cut chicken pieces, turmeric, paprika powder, salt, and pepper. Cook for 3 minutes and add 2 dl of water. Let the mixture simmer for 15 minutes until the mixture becomes thicker. When ready, let cool down a little bit.
- Peel and cut potatoes into small cubes. Heat 1 dl of vegetable oil in a small pot (NB! Keep the lid nearby for safety reasons) until it’s around 180°C. You can test the heat of the oil, for instance, with a small piece of bread that should brown in 30 seconds. Fry the potatoes in the oil until the cubes are cooked. Remove potatoes from the oil and drain them on kitchen paper.
3. In a large bowl mix together chicken mixture, fried potatoes, grated cheese, happy cow cheese, and chopped parsley. Stir in 8 eggs and mix until well-combined.
4. Grease a medium-size baking pan and pour the prepared mixture into the pan. Bake in oven 180°C for about 30 minutes, until the tajine has set in the center.
5. Yee!! Your traditional Tunisian chicken tajine is ready. Let it cool down and cut into serving-size pieces. Serve with harissa.
I truly encourage everybody to try this very traditional Tunisian chicken tajine! Next time fill up your lunch boxes, dinner menus, party tables, and picnic baskets with Tunisian tajine.
Check also these recipes:
Mosli – Tunisian chicken and vegetable stew
Kafteji- Tunisian fried vegetables
