Mahgrebi Chicken Soup

Since I was blithering on about Aleppo pepper earlier, might as well toss out a recipe for y’all to try.

Take:
2 pounds of chicken thighs
1 Yellow onion
6 garlic cloves
2 carrots
1 teaspoon coriander
1 teaspoon Aleppo pepper
1/2 teaspoon ginger paste
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
2 cups of baby spinach (no chop!)
4 tablespoons fresh dill (chopped)
8 tablespoons fresh parsley (chopped)
1 preserved lemon (rinsed, discard pulp)
1 fresh lemon
Salt and pepper
Olive oil

Dust your chicken thighs with salt and pepper, cut your onion into rings, and get four of your garlic cloves. Toss all of the above into a nice big stock-pot, cover with enough water, and set to simmering until the chicken is cooked. Call it a half-hour or so.

When the chicken is cooked fish it out. Be sure to get all of the chicken skin out of there, and pitch it. (Ick.)

In a frying pan, warm up some olive oil. While the olive oil is getting there, pull the bones out of your chicken and shred it up, slice your carrots real thin, and smash your last two (uncooked) garlic cloves.

Toss the minced garlic into the hot oil, stir it around and let it get all nice and nutty, then throw in your chicken. Stir some more, then add your carrots and the spices.

Stir, making sure that the spices cover everything — shouldn’t take very long — then dump everything in the frying pan back into the broth. Be sure you’ve rinsed the salt off of your preserved lemon, cut it into toothsome little chunks, and bung that in there, too.

Simmer that for about 20-30 minutes, cut off your heat, give it a good stir, then toss in the spinach, the dill, and the parsley, and stir gently.

Squeeze every bit of the juice from the fresh lemon into the soup, and serve with chunks of nice, crusty bread.

Voila! Mahgrebi Chicken Soup.

LawDog

Bloody hell
Ah, peppers

13 thoughts on “Mahgrebi Chicken Soup”

  1. And thanks to Rita posting about them,I just so happen to have some preserved lemons.
    I have to cook the next couple of evenings, this is it.
    Thank you!

  2. Hard to mess up chicken soup. Especially with crusty bread.
    Spinach?? 🤔

  3. Welp, time to preserve some lemons. It’s pretty easy, just need to find some lemons.

  4. Made the soup. Taste is dill and heat (back of throat and front of tongue) but not much else is distinguishable, I think I made it correctly so is that what it should taste like?

      1. No. Several questions. 2 lbs of thigh-is that 2 lbs of meat or 2lbs of meat/skin/bone? How much water for the boil- I used about 6-8 cups. What size garlic cloves – mine are about 1″.I also used granulated ginger as opposed to paste.
        Served it to she-who-must-be-obeyed and she liked it. So did I. Just wasn’t sure what I got was what it should have been.

        1. Should be one two-pound pack of skin-on, bone-in thighs.

          Sounds about right for water, cloves — I use the bigger ones in whatever bunch I get. I’ve … never used granulated ginger. Huh.

  5. Just finished the last of a batch of Pork and Chili Stew, so this goes on the list for next recipe; sounds delicious. Preserved lemons – OK.

  6. Dammit, LawDog! Stop making me hungry! I just ate and I’m too fat already. I bought preserved lemons months ago for some other dish and they’re just sitting there begging to be used. Mmm, chicken…

  7. Speaking of recipes, is the cookbook still open for submissions? I can’t seem to find it on the Raconteur Press page.

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