Chef Zohra
Tagine Amazigh aux Légumes
An Amazigh tagine from the Atlas spirit: seasonal vegetables stood upright over onion and tomato, cooked tight under the lid until their own juices make the sauce.
Culinary Explorer
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Poulet M'hammer aux Amandes (دجاج محمر)
Created by
A celebration chicken simmered low in saffron onion sauce, browned until golden, then carried to the table with fried almonds scattered over the top.
Main Dishes
Moroccan
Celebration
Special Occasion
Dinner Party
25 min
Active Time
1 hr 35 min cook•2 hr total
Yield6 servings
The whole dish turns on the second cooking. First the chicken grows tender in onion, saffron, ginger, and smen. Then you lift it from the pot and brown it until the skin takes color, the kind of gold that tells the table something generous is coming.
M'hammer means browned, reddened, brought to that deep festive color. Don't rush the sauce while the chicken waits. Let the grated onions reduce until they turn glossy and cling to the spoon, because that sauce is not background. It is where the spice, the chicken juices, and the patience gather.
This is not the everyday chicken with preserved lemon and olives that people outside Morocco repeat until they think they know us. Il n'y a pas une cuisine marocaine, mais des cuisines marocaines, not one Moroccan cuisine, but many. This one belongs to the celebration table, the dinner where the platter lands in the center and the almonds are picked up with pieces of khobz before anyone remembers formality.
Make room. Poulet m'hammer is la cuisine du lien, the cooking of connection: one chicken, one platter, many hands, and always one more chair than you planned.
M'hammer sits in the urban Moroccan festive register, especially in the Fassi and northern city kitchens where poultry was often simmered with saffron, ginger, smen, and onion, then browned for a ceremonial finish. Its sweet-savory cousins trace the old Andalusi taste for meat with nuts and warm spices, carried through Fez after the movements of Muslims and Jews from al-Andalus around and after 1492. The exact dating of the dish is not fixed, but the technique of braise, reduce, then brown belongs clearly to the refined city repertoire rather than to a single written source.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
whole chicken
Quantity
1, about 1.8 kg
cut into 6 to 8 pieces, or use 6 bone-in chicken legs
yellow onions
Quantity
3 large
grated
garlic cloves
Quantity
4
finely grated
ground ginger
Quantity
1 tsp
sweet paprika
Quantity
1 tsp
ground turmeric
Quantity
1/2 tsp
ground white pepper
Quantity
1/2 tsp
saffron threads
Quantity
1 small pinch
bloomed in 3 tbsp warm water
cinnamon stick
Quantity
1
smen or unsalted butter
Quantity
2 tbsp
olive oil
Quantity
3 tbsp
fresh coriander
Quantity
1 small bunch
tied with kitchen string
flat-leaf parsley
Quantity
1 small bunch
tied with kitchen string
preserved lemon
Quantity
1
pulp removed and rind rinsed, cut into strips
blanched almonds
Quantity
150g
neutral oil
Quantity
as needed
for frying the almonds
sea salt
Quantity
to taste
water (optional)
Quantity
2 tbsp
only if the sauce catches while reducing
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| whole chickencut into 6 to 8 pieces, or use 6 bone-in chicken legs | 1, about 1.8 kg |
| yellow onionsgrated | 3 large |
| garlic clovesfinely grated | 4 |
| ground ginger | 1 tsp |
| sweet paprika | 1 tsp |
| ground turmeric | 1/2 tsp |
| ground white pepper | 1/2 tsp |
| saffron threadsbloomed in 3 tbsp warm water | 1 small pinch |
| cinnamon stick | 1 |
| smen or unsalted butter | 2 tbsp |
| olive oil | 3 tbsp |
| fresh coriandertied with kitchen string | 1 small bunch |
| flat-leaf parsleytied with kitchen string | 1 small bunch |
| preserved lemonpulp removed and rind rinsed, cut into strips | 1 |
| blanched almonds | 150g |
| neutral oilfor frying the almonds | as needed |
| sea salt | to taste |
| water (optional)only if the sauce catches while reducing | 2 tbsp |
Equipment Needed
- •Heavy clay tagine base or 5 liter Dutch oven
- •Wide oven tray or heavy skillet for browning
- •Small frying pan for almonds
Instructions
- 1
Season the chicken
Put the chicken in a wide bowl with the grated onion, garlic, ginger, paprika, turmeric, white pepper, bloomed saffron and its water, and a good pinch of salt. Work everything into the chicken with your hands, under the skin where you can. The scale is in the eyes, la balance est dans les yeux, but the chicken should look well stained and smell warm with saffron and ginger.
If you have 1 hour, cover and rest the chicken in the refrigerator. If guests are already near the door, cook it now. The dish will still hold. - 2
Start the braise
Warm the olive oil and smen in a heavy pot or the base of a sturdy tagine over medium heat. Add the chicken with all its onion and spice, turning the pieces for 8 to 10 minutes until the onion begins to melt and the chicken loses its raw look. Add the cinnamon stick, coriander, parsley, and just enough water to come about halfway up the chicken, not to drown it.
- 3
Simmer gently
Cover, lower the heat, and simmer gently for 45 to 60 minutes, turning the chicken once or twice, until the meat is tender but still holds to the bone. The pot should murmur, not boil hard. Hard boiling toughens the chicken and breaks the onion sauce before it has had time to become itself.
- 4
Reduce the sauce
Lift the chicken pieces to a tray and keep them close. Remove the herb bundles and cinnamon stick. Simmer the onion sauce uncovered, stirring often, until the water has gone and the onions turn thick, golden, and glossy. This is the one thing that decides the dish: if the sauce stays thin, the m'hammer has no body. If it catches, add only a spoon or two of water and keep stirring.
- 5
Brown the chicken
Heat the oven to 220C, or use a wide skillet if you prefer the stovetop. Brush the chicken with a little of the reduced sauce and brown it skin side up in the oven for 15 to 20 minutes, or in the skillet until the skin turns deep gold with darker edges. It should look lacquered, not dry. Spoon a little fat from the sauce over it once as it browns.
- 6
Fry the almonds
While the chicken browns, fry the blanched almonds in a small pan of neutral oil over medium heat, stirring constantly, until they turn honey-gold. Pull them out a shade before you think they're done, because they keep coloring after they leave the oil. Drain on paper and salt lightly.
- 7
Finish the platter
Stir the preserved lemon strips through the reduced onion sauce for the last 2 minutes, just long enough to perfume it. Spread the sauce over a warm communal platter, arrange the browned chicken on top, and scatter the fried almonds generously. Serve at once with round khobz so everyone can gather the sauce properly.
Chef Tips
- •Use saffron threads and bloom them in warm water first. The powdered yellow is not saffron, and it brings color without honor.
- •Smen gives the old festive taste, a little sharp and deep. If you don't have it, use good butter, but don't replace the preserved lemon with fresh lemon. They are not the same ingredient.
- •Fry almonds with your eyes on the pan. Pale almonds taste unfinished, dark almonds turn bitter, and there is only a short breath between the two.
- •A tagine base is welcome, but a heavy Dutch oven serves well for a home cook. What matters is steady heat and a sauce reduced until it clings.
Advance Preparation
- •Season the chicken up to 12 hours ahead and keep it covered in the refrigerator.
- •Blanch the almonds a day ahead if needed, but fry them the day you serve so they keep their clean bite.
- •You can braise the chicken and reduce the sauce earlier in the day. Brown the chicken and scatter the almonds just before the platter goes to the table.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 330g)
Calories
720 calories
Total Fat
56 g
Saturated Fat
13 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
43 g
Cholesterol
155 mg
Sodium
750 mg
Total Carbohydrates
15 g
Dietary Fiber
5 g
Sugars
4 g
Protein
42 g
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