Sous Vide Chicken Tagine

Sous vide chicken tagine made with chicken thighs offers deliciously juicy chicken and bold Moroccan flavors. Ready in an hour.

A tagine is a type of North African earthenware cooking vessel with a conical lid, and it’s also the name for the hearty stews cooked in it. Namely, chicken tagine is one of the most popular Moroccan chicken stews.

I’ve included a sous vide chicken tagine recipe in my Complete Sous Vide Cookbook published in December 2020. Revisiting and cooking the recipe in the past three years has led me to modify it. It’s only natural, just like our perspectives on certain things change as we grow older and wiser. 

The dish is essentially the same. It still has an authentic Moroccan spice mixture and the classic tagine vegetables, but the way I make it is slightly different. It’s an improved version of the recipe, in my opinion. And that’s what I am about to share with you in this article. 

Before we get to the action steps, there are a few reasons that I found it beneficial to use the sous vide cooking method for chicken tagine. If you think it’s more practical for you, too, this recipe is a great option. Otherwise, there’s nothing wrong with making chicken tagine on the stove. 

Sous Vide Chicken Tagine vs. Stovetop Chicken Tagine

It takes the same amount of time to make chicken tagine sous vide and on the stovetop. 

Traditional chicken tagine is made with chicken thighs, and it takes about one hour on the stove from start to finish. Sous vide chicken thighs take about the same amount of time to cook to perfection under the water. You can do all the other prep work and cook the tagine base while the chicken is effortlessly hanging about in the sous vide bath. So the total time using either cooking method ends up being the same.

Sous vide chicken thigh is guaranteed juicy and tender. 

The guaranteed results that come with sous vide cooking apply to everything. With chicken thighs, you’ll never have to worry about overcooking, and you’ll be able to tweak the texture to your liking by controlling the cooking temperature. This is not something the stovetop method can achieve. 

With the sous vide cooking method, you don’t need large cookware to make a big batch of chicken tagine. 

Some dishes just don’t turn out that well if you do a small batch. There are simply not enough flavors or juices to reach their full potential. Chicken tagine is one of these dishes. 

Don’t have a big enough pan to simmer 4 pounds of chicken thighs in a single layer? Don’t sweat it. Cook the chicken thighs sous vide and use a medium pan like I did to make the tagine veggies and base. You just need to place the sous vide-cooked chicken thighs in the tagine base when serving. This can even be done directly on a serving plate by showering the chicken with a generous amount of tagine base. Problem solved.

It’s so easy and convenient to prep ahead with sous vide. 

In this case, you can sous vide the Moroccan chicken a few days ahead of time and leave the bag, still sealed, in the fridge until you are ready to make the tagine. I found it super convenient for meal prepping or hosting gatherings. It’s like having the majority of cooking already done before the real action even starts. 

Sous Vide Chicken Thighs Cook Time and Temperature 

General Sous Vide Chicken Thighs

Generally speaking, temperatures for sous vide chicken thighs range between 150°F (66°C) and 165°F (74°C). Cook time is one hour up to four hours, which means you can let your chicken thighs hang out in the water for longer without much texture change.

Chicken Thigh Texture	Cook Temperature	Cook Time
Very juicy but quite firm	150°F (66°C)	1 to 4 hours
Very juicy and completely tender	165°F (74°C)	1 to 4 hours

Cooking the chicken thighs longer than 4 hours will give you fall-off-the-bone tenderness. The trade-off is that you lose some juiciness.

Also, please note that for bone-in chicken thighs, make sure to cook for at least two hours. 

Sous Vide Chicken Thighs for Chicken Tagine

For chicken tagine, I usually pre-sear the chicken thighs to render out most of the fat. Then I cook them at a slightly higher temperature for a little less time. The result has been phenomenal.

My favorite time and temperature combination to sous vide chicken thighs for chicken tagine is 167°F (75°C) for 45 minutes. 

What You Need

Now, it’s time to gather your ingredients and set up your sous vide. 

Essential Ingredients

• Boneless skin-on chicken thighs: Prepare 3-4 pounds of them, about 8-12 pieces. I found that a smaller batch doesn’t produce the same flavor depth. 
• Olive oil or unsalted butter: For searing the chicken. 
• Tagine spices: Kosher salt, freshly ground pepper, paprika, cumin, ginger, coriander, cayenne pepper, and cinnamon. 
• Tagine vegetables and base: Yellow onion, carrots, garlic, lemon, flour, chicken stock, honey, black or green olives, and fresh cilantro. You can also add sweet peas, apricots, and/or chickpeas to the base as hearty variations.

Essential Equipment

• A sous vide immersion circulator. I often use my Anova Precision Cooker because I hook it to my Anova sous vide cooking container and keep the setup in a corner of my kitchen. 
• A sous vide container or a large soup pot. There’s always water in my Anova sous vide cooking container, so it gets reused and preheated whenever I sous vide, which is quite often. It’s wide enough to hold a large bag of chicken thigh pieces. If you use a deep soup pot, you’ll want to place the chicken pieces into multiple bags to submerge them in the water.
• A vacuum sealer. To keep all chicken thigh pieces in a single layer to cook, a vacuum sealer makes it easier. You can also use Ziploc bags and implement the water displacement method. When it comes to making ahead and meal prep, my vacuum sealer is my best friend. 
• Vacuum-sealer rolls. For this recipe, I used vacuum-sealer rolls to custom-cut a big bag to hold 9 chicken thighs in one single layer. Want to know how to choose the right bags for sous vide every time? Read my deep-dive guide: Sous Vide Bags 101.
• A non-stick frying pan with a lid. Something like this, which has enough depth to hold the tagine base and also pre-sear the chicken thighs beautifully. You can also use a cast iron skillet with lid or a Dutch oven for this recipe.
• Tongs. You’ll be reaching for them quite a lot when making the sous vide chicken tagine. 

How to Make Sous Vide Chicken Tagine Step by Step

Step #1: Preheat water to 167°F (75°C) using a sous vide machine.

Step #2: In a small bowl, combine salt, freshly ground pepper, paprika, cumin, ginger, coriander, cayenne pepper, and cinnamon. Mix well, and divide the tagine spices in half. 

Step #3: Rinse and pat the chicken dry with paper towels. Season chicken thighs with one-half of the mixed spices on both sides and sear them skin-side down in a hot pan along with fresh garlic cloves. Pour off and discard all but 1 tablespoon of fat from the skillet. Set the skillet back on the stove.

Step #4: Place chicken in one or multiple sous vide bags in one single layer, and seal the bag(s) and sous vide for 45 minutes.

Step #5: Chop onion and carrots; zest lemon and squeeze lemon juice; prepare olives and cilantro.

Step #6: Cook the tagine vegetables and base. 

Step #7: Bring the chicken tagine together by nesting the sous vide chicken into the tagine base along with its juice from the cooking bag. Garnish with fresh cilantro leaves, and serve with couscous or flatbread.

What to Serve with Sous Vide Chicken Tagine

It’s popular to serve tagine with couscous, but if you want to score authenticity points, serve it with a Middle Eastern flatbread (traditionally used instead of utensils to scoop up the tagine.) 

Side dishes that will round out the meal nicely include greens like green beans, steamed broccoli, or sautéed kale. 

Here you have it—a Moroccan-style sous vide chicken thigh recipe. If you like it, you might also like my other sous vide recipes such as Sous Vide Chicken Breast with Asparagus, Thai Sous Vide Chicken Thighs with Tomato Salad, and Chinese Sticky and Crispy Sous Vide Chicken Drumsticks.

As always, once you get a chance to make this chicken recipe, please share your experience in the comments below so all of us StreetSmart home chefs can learn from it. Happy sous viding!

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