Nightshade-Free Chicken Tagine (AIP)

This Nightshade-Free Sheet Pan Chicken Tagine is for those nights when you want big flavor but only have enough energy for one pan and letting the oven do the work. With a few scoops of anti-inflammatory spices like turmeric, cinnamon, ginger and garlic — and none of the usual nightshade heat — humble chicken thighs and vegetables turn into a deeply comforting dinner that tastes slow-cooked but isn’t. Just toss everything together and slide it into the oven around four o’clock, then head back to your work-from-home desk to finish those last few emails. By the time you’re done, the aromas wafting from the kitchen will be calling everyone to the table. This Moroccan-style dinner feels special but couldn’t be simpler.

How this Sheet Pan Chicken Tagine fits AIP

This Nightshade-Free Sheet Pan Chicken Tagine was developed for the AutoImmune Protocol, now called AIP Core, which means there are no nightshade spices like paprika and no seed-based spices, like cumin. Instead, the spice blend is full of anti-inflammatory spices like turmeric, cinnamon and ginger.

The only ingredients that require a little label-reading are the olives and dried apricots. Look for dried apricots that are unsulfured, organic and free of added sugar. They’ll be a soft brownish-gold rather than bright orange, and taste more like real fruit than their neon-orange counterparts. For olives, choose varieties brined simply in water and salt, and avoid those stuffed with pimentos, since peppers are nightshades.

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Start by prepping all of your vegetables. Peel and halve (or quarter) the carrots, trim the fennel and cut it into wedges right through the core, peel and halve the shallots, peel and cube the sweet potato and quarter the lemon. The trick is to keep all of the vegetables on the larger side and around the same size.

In a large bowl, make a spice rub with olive oil, salt, turmeric, cinnamon, garlic and mace. Mace is the dried and ground outer webbing of nutmeg. Nutmeg is a seed spice, but mace is perfectly compliant with AIP and has all of the same warm-spice earthiness. If you’re not avoiding seed spices, you can use nutmeg instead. Use the weight of the chicken to guide how much salt goes in the spice rub. A good rule of thumb is one teaspoon of Kosher salt per pound of chicken. Toss bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs in the spice rub, then transfer them to a sheet pan.

Add the vegetables to the same bowl and toss with a little more salt and olive oil. You’ll pick up the remnants of the spice rub. Don’t be concerned about chicken cross-contamination here; everything is about to cook together on the sheet pan.

Arrange the chicken thighs skin-side up on the sheet pan and spread the vegetables around it. Try to get everything in one even layer for maximum browning. For this recipe, I forgo my usual parchment paper lining. Instead, I want everything to have direct contact with the sheet pan. There’s plenty of olive oil on the chicken and vegetables, but I’ve brushed the sheet pan with a touch more olive oil as a bit of insurance against sticking. In the oven it goes at 425° for 20 to 30 minutes.

Start checking the internal temperature of the chicken around the 20-minute mark. Once the chicken reaches an internal temperature of 165°, remove the pan from the oven and smashed olives and dried apricot or date halves in with the vegetables. Put the pan back in the oven and roast for another 10 minutes to bring the chicken up to 180°. If the chicken skin isn’t quite as browned and crispy as you’d like, you can turn the broiler on and let it cook for another two minutes, instead. Just keep a close eye on it. Remove it from the oven and let the chicken rest for a few minutes to come up to 185°, which is a temperature way too high for chicken breast, but in the ideal range for juicy, succulent chicken thighs.

Squeeze the roasted lemon quarters all over the top of the chicken and veggies, and sprinkle with cilantro, parsley, mint, or all three. That pop of freshness from the herbs, plus the sweetness of the dried apricots and all those warm, earthy spices will have you scooping up every last bite of this Nightshade-free Sheet Pan Chicken Tagine.

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Nightshade-Free Chicken Tagine (AIP)

5 from 1 vote

Roast chicken thighs with sweet potatoes, fennel, carrots, olives and dried apricots on one pan with sweet, roasted lemon and nightshade-free Moroccan-inspired tagine spices. 

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Total Time:45 minutes mins

Servings: 4

Author: Christina Marche

Ingredients

• ¼ cup olive oil, divided
• 3 tsp Kosher salt, divided
• ¾ tsp turmeric
• ½ tsp ground ginger
• ¼ tsp ground cinnamon
• ¼ tsp granulated garlic
• ⅛ tsp mace
• 3 lb bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs (4-6 thighs)
• 2-3 medium carrots, peeled and halved lengthwise or quartered
• 2 large shallots, halved
• 1 fennel bulb, trimmed and cut lengthwise into 6 wedges
• 1 sweet potato, peeled and cut into large cubes
• 1 lemon, quartered
• ½ cup Castelvetrano olives, smashed or cracked
• ½ cup dried apricots or pitted dried dates, halved
• ½ cup torn fresh herbs, cilantro, mint, parsley, or a combination

Instructions

• Heat the oven to 425°.
• In a large bowl, whisk 2 tablespoons of olive oil with 2 teaspoons of salt and the turmeric, ginger, cinnamon, garlic and mace. Add the chicken thighs and toss to coat.
• Brush a tablespoon of olive oil on the baking sheet. Then, arrange the chicken thighs skin-side up on the baking sheet.
• In the same bowl, toss the carrots, shallots, fennel wedges and sweet potato with another tablespoon of olive oil and a teaspoon of salt, picking up the leftover spice rub.
• Scatter the vegetables and lemon wedges around the chicken.
• Roast for 20 to 30 minutes, or until the chicken reaches an internal temperature of 165°.
• Remove the pan from the oven and scatter the smashed olives and halved apricots or dates in with the vegetables.
• Return the pan to the oven and roast for another 10 minutes, until the chicken reaches 180°. Alternately, if the vegetables and chicken aren’t quite brown and caramelized enough, put the sheet pan under the broiler for 2 to 5 minutes.
• Squeeze the roasted lemons over the chicken and vegetables, then finish with handfuls of fresh herbs and a sprinkle of salt, as needed.

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: AIP, AIP Modified, Paleo, Whole30

Adapted from Melissa Clark’s “Roasted Chicken Tagine” in Dinner in One.