“Lemony olive braised chicken” from “Fresh”

Kirstin: A few weeks ago Tom and I visited New York. We were lucky enough to be able to spend a few nights with Tom’s godmother Virginia and her husband Joe who live in Weehawken, New Jersey. We have holidayed with these two, visiting Tuscany several times with them over the years and shared so many wonderful meals I have lost count. Together they introduced us to fine food and wine in New York. So I felt the least I could do when we came to stay was to bring a good cookbook. I chose “Fast Feasts” by John Gregory-Smith, my favourite cookbook discovery this year, and together we decided to cook the “lemon and olive chicken tagine”. It’s a very simple recipe that requires preserved lemon and green olives. But when we opened a jar of preserved lemons, they had gone off, so we had to do without them. I still loved the result, though. The sauce was so delicious that Virginia kept it, and the leftover couscous, for lunch the next day.



I say all this because “lemony olive braised chicken” is a deliberate attempt to recreate the same recipe without fancy ingredients, as far as I can tell. In particular, no preserved lemons. So I have created the perfect natural experiment. I made the original recipe without preserved lemons. How would this one compare?



It was alright. It uses calamata olives, and slices of lemon instead of preserved ones, and the sauce was certainly tasty. But it wasn’t as thick and powerful as the original sauce, which includes a bit of flour. Also, couscous is really yum (whereas this recipe suggests crusty bread as an accompaniment). So, this was a valiant attempt, but I would recommend cooking the original recipe, even if you don’t have preserved lemons. And if you do have preserved lemons, it’s even better!