Featured wine and dish – Vondeling Wines Babiana and Chicken Tagine with Apricots and Roasted Almonds

The fabulous food and wine pairing is brought to you by Abigail Bezuidenhout of My Boozy Kitchen. She paired Vondeling Wines vibrant Babiana with an aromatic and delicious Chicken Tagine.

This is a heavenly one-pot wonder – comfort food at its best.

Ingredients

• 10 pieces of free-range chicken, preferably thighs
• 3 Tbsp butter
• Glug of extra virgin olive oil
• 1 large onion, diced
• 1 clove garlic, chopped
• 20g tagine spice (see recipe below)
• 40g honey
• 80g dried, soft Turkish apricots
• 80g pitted dates
• 2 medium red-skinned sweet potatoes / yams, cut into large chunks.
• 500ml chicken stock
• 50g tomato paste
• 1 lemon, juice only
• 100g flaked almonds, roasted.

For the tagine spice mix:

• 2 tsp ginger powder
• 2 tsp turmeric
• 2 tsp paprika
• 1 tsp black pepper
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp coriander powder

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180°C. Heat butter and oil in a large frying pan and brown chicken pieces on all sides. Remove the chicken pieces from the pan and set aside.
2. Add the onions and garlic to the pan, cook until lightly coloured. Add in the tagine spice and fry for a couple of minutes.
3. Add the honey, apricots and dates and cook for a further couple of minutes.
4. Pour in the chicken stock, tomato paste and lemon juice. Bring to a boil, season to taste.
5. Place chicken and sweet potatoes into a suitable ovenware dish and cover with the sauce. Cover with a lid and place into a preheated oven and cook for 1 hour until sweet potatoes are soft.
6. Remove from the oven and finish with the roasted almonds. Serve on jasmine rice.