[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":433},["ShallowReactive",2],{"recipe:algerian-tajine-zitoun":3,"recipe:country:algeria":216},{"slug":4,"title":5,"nativeName":6,"romanized":7,"pronunciation":8,"countrySlug":9,"region":10,"emoji":11,"summary":12,"intro":13,"story":14,"whyThis":15,"tips":20,"substitutions":27,"variations":40,"serveWith":50,"storage":52,"faq":53,"equipment":69,"baseServings":73,"prepMinutes":74,"cookMinutes":75,"difficulty":76,"course":77,"diet":79,"mainIngredients":82,"ingredients":88,"instructions":164,"nutrition":190,"images":196,"keywords":206,"publishedAt":214,"updatedAt":214,"authorSlug":215},"algerian-tajine-zitoun","Tadjine Zitoun (Algerian Chicken and Green Olive Stew)","طاجين زيتون","Tadjine zitoun","ta-JEEN zee-TOON","algeria","Algiers","🫒","Chicken and tiny hand-rolled meatballs in a pale, lemony sauce with blanched green olives, mushrooms and carrots. The dish Algerian families put on the table when there is something to celebrate.","Tadjine zitoun puts chicken, small meatballs and green olives into one pale sauce and lets them argue politely. The sauce is a marqa beida — onion softened without colour, cinnamon and black pepper, no tomato anywhere — thickened at the end and sharpened with lemon, so the finished stew is creamy-looking, savoury and distinctly tangy rather than rich. Blanching the olives is what makes it work: it strips the harsh brine and leaves a clean bitterness that plays against the lemon. Mushrooms and carrots go in for texture. It is wedding food and Friday food, and it wants nothing beside it but bread.","A word of warning about the name. In Algeria, tadjine describes the dish and the way it is cooked, not the conical earthenware pot that Moroccan tagines are famous for — an Algerian tadjine is made in an ordinary deep pot on the stove, and the flat clay item called a tajine in Algeria is a griddle for baking bread. This causes endless confusion in English-language recipe collections, which tend to assume all Maghreb tadjines come with a lid shaped like a hat.\n\nTadjine zitoun sits at the polite end of the cuisine algéroise, the capital's refined kitchen, and it is unmistakably celebration food. It appears at weddings, at engagement parties, at the meals that follow a birth, and on the Friday table of households who can afford it, because it uses two proteins at once — jointed chicken and a batch of little meatballs called boulettes, rolled small enough to eat in one bite. Making both is the point: the dish is meant to look generous.\n\nThe olives are the character of it. Algerian cooks use firm green olives, usually pitted, and boil them in a couple of changes of water before they go anywhere near the sauce, since brine straight from the jar would take the whole pot hostage. Mushrooms are a relatively modern addition that has been entirely absorbed, and carrots earn their place by adding a sweetness the lemon then cuts. Some families finish the sauce with egg yolks beaten with lemon juice, stirred in off the heat for body and gloss; others simply thicken it with a spoon of flour or cornflour. Both are considered correct, and which one a household uses is usually inherited rather than chosen.",[16,17,18,19],"Olives blanched in two changes of water, so the sauce tastes of olive rather than of brine.","Meatballs poached in the sauce rather than fried first, which keeps them tender and seasons the broth as they cook.","A white sauce built on genuinely uncoloured onion, with the technique spelled out so it does not accidentally caramelise.","Two thickening options given — the classic egg and lemon liaison, and a simpler starch slurry that cannot split.",[21,22,23,24,25,26],"Taste an olive after the first blanch. If it is still aggressively salty, blanch again — some brands need three changes of water.","Roll the meatballs no bigger than a walnut and wet your hands between batches; damp hands stop the mixture sticking and give a smoother surface.","Keep the pot at a bare tremble once the meatballs are in. A boil breaks them apart and clouds the sauce.","Add the lemon juice at the very end and off the boil. Simmered lemon turns flat and slightly bitter, and you lose the brightness the dish depends on.","If you use the egg liaison, temper it first with a ladle of hot sauce while whisking, then stir it in with the pot off the heat. Poured in cold and direct, it scrambles.","The sauce should coat a spoon but still run. Thicken it in small stages, because you cannot un-thicken it without diluting the flavour.",[28,32,36],{"original":29,"swap":30,"note":31},"Green olives in brine","Pitted Nocellara or Castelvetrano olives","Choose firm, mild green olives with flesh that holds up to twenty minutes of simmering. Black olives change the dish entirely and stain the pale sauce grey.",{"original":33,"swap":34,"note":35},"Minced beef for the meatballs","Minced lamb, or minced chicken","Lamb makes a heavier, more traditional-tasting version. Minced chicken needs an extra tablespoon of breadcrumbs to hold together, since it carries less fat.",{"original":37,"swap":38,"note":39},"Egg and lemon liaison","1 tbsp cornflour slaked in cold water","The starch route is more forgiving and completely acceptable in Algerian homes. You lose a little of the silkiness and gain immunity from curdling.",[41,44,47],{"name":42,"description":43},"Tadjine zitoun with chicken only","The meatballs left out and the chicken quantity increased. Faster and lighter, and the standard weeknight version rather than the celebration one.",{"name":45,"description":46},"With preserved lemon","A quartered preserved lemon added with the olives and the fresh lemon juice reduced by half. Deeper and more perfumed, and closer to how the dish is often cooked further west.",{"name":48,"description":49},"Tadjine hamra","The red-sauce treatment — tomato paste and paprika in place of the pale base, with the olives added late. A different dish in spirit, but built on the same chicken and meatball structure.",[51],"Plenty of crusty semolina bread for the sauce, and a plate of raw fennel or a simple lettuce salad to cut the richness.","Keeps three days refrigerated and the olive flavour spreads further through the sauce each day. Reheat covered over low heat until it steams; if you used the egg liaison, do not let it approach a boil or it will separate into grains. Freezing works for two months but only for the starch-thickened version — an egg-finished sauce breaks on thawing and cannot be brought back.",[54,57,60,63,66],{"question":55,"answer":56},"Why do I have to blanch the olives?","Olives straight from the jar carry a great deal of salt and a sharp brine flavour that will dominate a pale, delicate sauce. Boiling them briefly in water, draining, and repeating pulls most of that out while leaving the olive taste and the firm texture. It takes five minutes and it is the single most important step in the recipe.",{"question":58,"answer":59},"My sauce turned beige instead of white — what happened?","The onion took colour. For a marqa beida the onion must be cooked in fat over low heat, ideally covered and with a pinch of salt, so it sweats and turns translucent rather than browning. Once any golden edges appear, that colour goes into the sauce and cannot be removed. Lower heat and a lid are the fix.",{"question":61,"answer":62},"Can I make the meatballs in advance?","Yes. Mix and roll them up to a day ahead and keep them covered in the fridge on a lightly oiled plate, or freeze them raw on a tray and bag them for up to two months. Poach from chilled as written, or add five minutes to the simmer if they go in frozen.",{"question":64,"answer":65},"Is an Algerian tadjine cooked in a conical tagine pot?","No. In Algeria the word refers to the dish itself, and it is cooked in a normal deep saucepan or casserole on the hob. The conical earthenware vessel is Moroccan; confusingly, the item Algerians call a tajine is a flat clay plate used for baking flatbreads. You need nothing special to make this.",{"question":67,"answer":68},"What do I do if the egg liaison curdles?","Take the pot off the heat immediately and whisk hard — a slightly grainy sauce will often come back together. If it does not, blend a ladleful smooth and stir it through, or accept the texture, which affects appearance more than flavour. Next time, temper the eggs with hot sauce first and add them with the pot off the heat entirely.",[70,71,72],"Large deep saucepan or casserole with a lid","Box grater","Small whisk",6,30,60,"medium",[78],"main",[80,81],"halal-friendly","nut-free",[83,84,85,86,87],"chicken","olives","ground-beef","mushrooms","lemon",[89,94,96,101,105,109,113,118,123,128,131,134,136,140,143,147,151,154,158,162],{"ref":83,"qty":90,"unit":91,"name":92,"group":93},800,"g","chicken thighs and drumsticks, skin removed","For the stew",{"ref":95,"qty":74,"unit":91,"name":95,"group":93},"butter",{"ref":97,"qty":98,"unit":99,"name":100,"group":93},"olive-oil",2,"tbsp","olive oil",{"ref":102,"qty":98,"unit":103,"name":104,"group":93},"onion","piece","onions, finely grated",{"ref":106,"qty":98,"unit":107,"name":108,"group":93},"garlic","clove","garlic cloves, crushed",{"ref":110,"qty":111,"unit":103,"name":112,"group":93},"cinnamon",1,"cinnamon stick",{"ref":114,"qty":115,"unit":116,"name":117,"group":93},"black-pepper",1.5,"tsp","freshly ground black pepper",{"ref":119,"qty":111,"unit":120,"name":121,"optional":122,"group":93},"saffron","pinch","saffron threads",true,{"ref":124,"qty":125,"unit":126,"name":127,"group":93},"stock",900,"ml","light chicken stock or water",{"ref":129,"qty":98,"unit":103,"name":130,"group":93},"carrot","carrots, in thick diagonal slices",{"ref":86,"qty":132,"unit":91,"name":133,"group":93},250,"button mushrooms, halved",{"ref":84,"qty":132,"unit":91,"name":135,"group":93},"firm green olives, pitted",{"ref":85,"qty":137,"unit":91,"name":138,"group":139},300,"minced beef","For the meatballs",{"ref":102,"qty":141,"unit":103,"name":142,"group":139},0.5,"small onion, very finely grated and squeezed dry",{"ref":144,"qty":145,"unit":99,"name":146,"group":139},"parsley",4,"flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped",{"ref":148,"qty":149,"unit":99,"name":150,"group":139},"breadcrumbs",3,"fine dried breadcrumbs",{"ref":152,"qty":111,"unit":103,"name":153,"group":139},"eggs","egg",{"qty":155,"unit":156,"name":157,"group":139},null,"to taste","salt and black pepper",{"ref":152,"qty":98,"unit":103,"name":159,"note":160,"group":161},"egg yolks","or 1 tbsp cornflour slaked in cold water","To finish",{"ref":87,"qty":111,"unit":103,"name":163,"group":161},"lemon, juiced",[165,169,173,177,180,183,187],{"title":166,"text":167,"tip":168},"Blanch the olives","Put the olives in a small pan, cover with cold water, bring to the boil and drain. Repeat once with fresh water, then taste one — it should be pleasantly bitter and no longer sharply salty. Set aside.","Some brands are far saltier than others. A third round costs nothing.",{"title":170,"text":171,"timerSeconds":172},"Start the pale base","Melt the butter with the olive oil in a large pan over low heat. Add the grated onion, garlic and a pinch of salt, cover, and cook for 12 minutes, stirring often, until the onion has gone soft, wet and glassy without picking up any colour at all.",720,{"title":174,"text":175,"timerSeconds":176},"Simmer the chicken","Add the chicken, cinnamon stick, black pepper and saffron and turn the pieces until they are coated and opaque on the outside. Pour in the stock, bring to a gentle simmer and cook covered for 25 minutes, skimming any foam in the first few minutes so the sauce stays clean.",1500,{"title":178,"text":179,"timerSeconds":125},"Roll and poach the meatballs","While the chicken cooks, mix the minced beef with the grated onion, parsley, breadcrumbs, egg, salt and pepper and roll into walnut-sized balls with damp hands. Add the carrots to the pot, then lower the meatballs in one by one and poach at a bare tremble for 15 minutes, until they float and feel firm to the touch of a spoon.",{"title":181,"text":182,"timerSeconds":172},"Add mushrooms and olives","Stir in the mushrooms and the blanched olives and simmer uncovered for 12 minutes more. The mushrooms should shrink and darken slightly, the carrots yield to a fork, and the sauce reduce to a little under half its original depth.",{"title":184,"text":185,"tip":186},"Thicken and sharpen","Whisk the egg yolks with the lemon juice in a bowl, then whisk in a ladleful of hot sauce to temper them. Take the pot off the heat, stir the mixture through, and let the residual warmth thicken it for a minute until the sauce coats a spoon but still runs off it. Taste and add salt and more lemon until it is clearly tangy.","Using cornflour instead? Slake it in cold water, stir it in over low heat and cook for 2 minutes before adding the lemon.",{"title":188,"text":189},"Rest and serve","Remove the cinnamon stick and let the pot stand for 5 minutes so the sauce settles and thickens a little further. Serve in shallow bowls with the chicken, meatballs and olives visible above the sauce, and bread on the side.",{"calories":191,"protein":192,"carbs":193,"fat":194,"fiber":145,"sodium":195,"estimated":122},520,45,14,31,890,[197,200,202,204],{"src":198,"alt":199},"\u002Fimages\u002Frecipes\u002Falgerian-tajine-zitoun\u002Fhero.jpg","Algerian tadjine zitoun in a wide pot — chicken pieces and small meatballs with green olives, mushrooms and carrots in a pale sauce",{"src":201,"alt":199},"\u002Fimages\u002Frecipes\u002Falgerian-tajine-zitoun\u002Fhero-16x9.jpg",{"src":203,"alt":199},"\u002Fimages\u002Frecipes\u002Falgerian-tajine-zitoun\u002Fhero-4x3.jpg",{"src":205,"alt":199},"\u002Fimages\u002Frecipes\u002Falgerian-tajine-zitoun\u002Fhero-1x1.jpg",[207,208,209,210,211,212,213],"tadjine zitoun","algerian chicken","green olives","white sauce","meatballs","wedding 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soup","maghreb","iftar",{"slug":248,"title":249,"nativeName":250,"romanized":251,"countrySlug":9,"baseServings":73,"prepMinutes":252,"cookMinutes":253,"difficulty":225,"course":254,"diet":257,"mainIngredients":258,"images":260,"keywords":264,"publishedAt":214,"updatedAt":214,"authorSlug":215},"algerian-bourek","Bourek (Algerian Fried Meat and Cheese Cigars)","بوراك","Bourek djazairi",35,25,[255,256],"appetizer","street-food",[80,81],[85,102,144,259,110],"cream-cheese",[261],{"src":262,"alt":263},"\u002Fimages\u002Frecipes\u002Falgerian-bourek\u002Fhero.jpg","Platter of golden Algerian bourek cigars, one broken open to show minced beef and melted cheese, with lemon wedges",[265,266,267,268,243,269,138],"bourek","algerian appetizer","dioul","brick pastry","fried 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free","calentita",{"slug":346,"title":347,"nativeName":348,"romanized":349,"countrySlug":9,"baseServings":350,"prepMinutes":253,"cookMinutes":74,"restMinutes":276,"difficulty":225,"course":351,"diet":353,"mainIngredients":354,"images":359,"keywords":363,"publishedAt":214,"updatedAt":214,"authorSlug":215},"khobz-dar","Khobz Dar (Algerian Semolina House Bread)","خبز الدار","Khobz dar",8,[352],"bread",[303,81],[281,355,356,357,358],"flour","yeast","sesame-seeds","milk",[360],{"src":361,"alt":362},"\u002Fimages\u002Frecipes\u002Fkhobz-dar\u002Fhero.jpg","Round golden Algerian khobz dar loaf topped with sesame and nigella seeds, one piece torn away to show the soft crumb",[364,365,366,367,368,369,370],"khobz dar","algerian bread","semolina loaf","sesame","nigella","home bread","matlou",{"slug":372,"title":373,"nativeName":374,"romanized":375,"countrySlug":9,"baseServings":145,"prepMinutes":376,"cookMinutes":326,"restMinutes":74,"difficulty":76,"course":377,"diet":378,"mainIngredients":380,"images":382,"keywords":386,"publishedAt":214,"updatedAt":214,"authorSlug":215},"mhadjeb","Mhadjeb (Algerian Stuffed Semolina Crepes)","محاجب","Mhadjeb",40,[256],[379,303,229,81],"vegan",[281,102,233,381,282],"bell-pepper",[383],{"src":384,"alt":385},"\u002Fimages\u002Frecipes\u002Fmhadjeb\u002Fhero.jpg","Stack of Algerian mhadjeb, blistered square semolina crepes cut open to show dark onion and tomato filling",[372,387,342,388,379,389,390],"mhajeb","semolina crepe","stuffed flatbread","ramadan snack",{"slug":392,"title":393,"nativeName":394,"romanized":395,"countrySlug":9,"region":10,"baseServings":145,"prepMinutes":74,"cookMinutes":396,"difficulty":76,"course":397,"diet":398,"mainIngredients":399,"images":400,"keywords":404,"publishedAt":214,"updatedAt":214,"authorSlug":215},"mtewem","Mtewem (Algerian Garlic Meatball and Lamb Stew)","مثوم","Mtewem",75,[78],[229,80,81],[106,231,85,232,110],[401],{"src":402,"alt":403},"\u002Fimages\u002Frecipes\u002Fmtewem\u002Fhero.jpg","Casserole of Algerian mtewem — small meatballs and lamb with whole garlic cloves and chickpeas in a pale sauce",[392,405,406,231,232,213,210],"garlic stew","algerian meatballs",{"slug":408,"title":409,"nativeName":410,"romanized":411,"countrySlug":9,"region":10,"baseServings":145,"prepMinutes":326,"cookMinutes":396,"restMinutes":74,"difficulty":76,"course":412,"diet":413,"mainIngredients":414,"images":416,"keywords":420,"publishedAt":214,"updatedAt":214,"authorSlug":215},"rechta","Rechta (Algiers Steamed 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