Djaj Mqualli

The next meal in my quest to prepare all 101 Classic Recipes in Saveur Magazines 150th issue is one that may not only be the most adventurous so far, but the hardest to pronounce as well.  Djaj Mqualli is a tangine of chicken, preserved lemons and olives from Morocco and includes a host of ingredients with very distinct flavors including ginger, saffron and coriander.

Djaj Mqualli Ingredients:

3 tbsp. olive oil
5 whole chicken legs
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
2 large yellow onions, sliced
2 tbsp. ground coriander
2 tsp. ground white pepper
2 tsp. ground ginger
1 tsp. ground turmeric
1/2 tsp. crushed saffron threads
1 1/2 cups chicken stock
6 oz. green olives, cracked
2 tbsp. unsalted butter
1 tbsp. finely chopped parsley
2 tsp. finely chopped cilantro
2 jarred preserved lemons, cut into slices

The first step in preparing Djaj Mqualli is to heat the olive oil over medium high heat in a dutch oven and
brown the chicken legs, turning once, for a total time of about 12-15 minutes.  As with grilling, I always cook meats with the skin or "presentation" side down first.  This way you get a good, quality color/sear on the part of the meat that will be visible.  Letting the skin brown fully until it has caramelized and released from the pan also helps keep the chicken in whole pieces, rather than leaving chunks of skin and meat stuck to the bottom of the pan.

As I noted in the my previous post for Chicken with Forty Cloves of Garlic, I often have the habit of not browning meats enough in the beginning of a recipe and get lackluster results in the final product.  For this dish I browned the meat beyond the point that I normally would, hoping that the final product would have more color and flavor.

Once the chicken legs had been fully browned, I set them aside on a plate and placed the chopped onion into the dutch oven and sauteed them until they were soft and golden.

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Once the onions had been cooked, I added the combination of spices and stirred them to fully integrate them into the onion mix and cooked for an additional two minutes.

One of the spices that Djaj Mqualli contains is saffron, the stigma of the saffron crocus flower and is extremely expensive.  From www.Penzeys.com:  "Saffron is so valuable because it is a very labor intensive crop, and only 5-7 pounds of saffron can be produced from each acre of land.  This makes saffron the most expensive spice by weight - it always has been- but by use, saffron isn't that expensive because a little goes a long way."  Saffron is available in most area supermarkets, but it is pricey.  The photo below is the package of saffron that I purchased from Budwey's for $7.99.  It looks pretty good right? A big bowl of saffron, almost a little like orange-red spaghetti.  However...

pictured below is the same container, with my wedding ring (size 13) for comparison purposes.  The saffron pictured is approximately a gram of saffron, but enough for at least 10 recipes.
 

Once the spice mixture had been fully incorporated into the onion mixture I put the chicken legs back in, spooned the onion mixture on top of them and baked them in a 350 degree oven, covered for 40 minutes.  

After the allotted time, I stirred in the olives, butter, parsley, cilantro and preserved lemons into the pot and returned to the oven for another 5 or 6 minutes.   

It's suggested that the Djaj be served with rice or flatbread and I opted for rice (but wished I had some flatbread).  There are a lot of strong flavors in this dish that could fight to over power each other (green olives, saffron, cilantro, onions, preserved lemons), but the slow roast of the onions certainly mellowed their flavor and the cilantro, green olives and lemons seemed to play well off of each other.  The lemons are preserved in brine and deliver not only sourness, but a salinity that kept up with the olives.  The sour flavor of the olives and lemon, was complimented, but not covered, by the distinct savory flavor of the cilantro.  Kim (everyone pretty much knows she's my wife at this point...right?) is not usually a huge fan of chicken legs and thighs, cumin, coriander, cilantro or green olives, but because the chicken was so tender, basically falling off the bone and because the other flavors of the meal were so bold that they covered up the offensive ingredients, she didn't notice them in the meal and she enjoyed it.

Credit: Todd Coleman

While I would have given Djaj Mqualli a 7 or 8 out of 10 on the night that I made it, it was so much better when I had the leftovers for dinner the next day.  The flavors had melded and mellowed even more and the chicken was so buttery that I had to stop short of gnawing on my fingers as I ate it.

One final warning though about saffron. Saffron tends to vibrantly color everything that it comes in contact with, like my cutting board, my counter and even one of my dishes.  While eating this, if you go native and eat with your fingers, be prepared for yellow finger tips and possibly even lips, but oh, it is so worth it!

Lucky # 13 down, 88 to go.