Looking for some new and exciting pressure cooker chicken recipes that are healthy and delicious? Try our Instant Pot Moroccan chicken stew with olives, potatoes and apricots. It's beautifully spiced, a little sweet with citrusy, lemony notes. Perfect one-pot dish to serve with couscous, rice or cauliflower rice, or crusty bread on the side. It's gluten-free and Whole30-friendly.
Moroccan food ranks high on lists of the world's tastiest cuisines and is well worth exploring if you haven't tried many recipes before. With incredible variety, beautiful spices and unique flavor combinations of savory and sweet, you can make Moroccan dishes in the comfort of your own kitchen. Today's Instant Pot Moroccan chicken recipe is a perfect example of how to make a tagine dish at home.
The combination of salty (olives), sweet (dried apricots) and sour (lemon) is a winning trio that is quite common in Moroccan dishes. With the addition of common pantry spices like cumin, turmeric and paprika, you're pretty much ready to become Moroccan chef extraordinaire.
We used chicken thighs for protein and cooked potatoes and carrots at the same time for a fairly easy one-pot dish the whole family will enjoy.
SERVING SUGGESTIONS
Our finished chicken tagine is garnished with toasted almonds and parsley but you can omit the nuts if you want. Fresh herbs are also optional but are always nice to freshen up the dish.
We recommend serving this Moroccan chicken tagine stew with couscous, which you can make in 5 minutes using a packet of quick-cooking grain, quinoa, rice or some crusty bread.
For a lower-carb or Whole30 version, use cauliflower rice or serve it as is with some greens on the side.
HOW TO MAKE INSTANT POT MOROCCAN CHICKEN
You will find the full list of ingredients, instructions, video and nutritional breakdown in the recipe card below.
There are two parts to cooking this Moroccan stew: Instant Pot pressure cooking and final oven grill finishing for that perfect crispy finish. To be honest, the second part is completely optional as the stew will be ready to eat once you finish pressure cooking. So if in a rush, skip the second stage!
MORE RECIPES YOU MIGHT LIKE
- Vegetarian Moroccan-Style Chickpea Stew
- Incredible Moroccan Lamb & Potato Stew
- Rice Pilaf With Ground Lamb & Figs
- Kale & Quinoa Pilaf With Goat's Feta
- For more Instant Pot Chicken Thigh Recipes go here.
Rate This Recipe
Instant Pot Moroccan Chicken With Lemon, Olives & Potatoes
Ingredients
- 2 lbs. chicken thighs skin and bone off
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon pepper
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 onion halved and sliced
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons garlic minced or crushed
- ½ teaspoon ginger
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon chili
- 1 teaspoon turmeric powder
- 1 teaspoon paprika powder
- 1 teaspoon cumin powder
- Juice of ½ orange about 2-3 tablespoons
- 1 cup of chicken stock
- ⅔ cup olives green and black
- 3 oz. dried apricots sliced in halves, 90 g
- 1 large carrot sliced thick
- 6-7 lemon slices one small lemon
- 4 small potatoes sliced into quarter wedges (about 0.6 lbs. / 300 g)
- A little extra salt
- Garnishes: toasted almonds and fresh parsley
Instructions
- Prepare all ingredients first. Cut the chicken thighs in halves and trim off any excess fat. Season with ½ teaspoon salt and ½ teaspoon pepper; set aside.
- Turn the Instant Pot and press the Sauté function key. Once the inside of the pot gets hot, add the olive oil, onions and ½ teaspoon of salt. Cook for 3-4 minutes, stirring a few times until lightly browned.
- Add garlic and spices and stir through to release the aromas. Add the orange juice and chicken stock and stir through, scraping off the bottom. Now, add the chicken pieces, olives, apricots and carrots and stir in the spiced broth.
- Insert lemon slices around the chicken and add the potato wedges on the top. Sprinkle them with a little extra salt.
- Pop the lid on top, lock and make sure the top valve is pointing to Sealing. Press Manual/Pressure Cook and set to 10 minutes at HIGH pressure. The Instant Pot will take about 10 minutes or so to come to pressure. Once the timer is done, allow 15 minutes for natural pressure release and then use the quick release method (point the top valve to Venting) to let off the remaining pressure.
- Open the lid. Remove the potatoes and lemon slices to a plate. Transfer everything but the sauce to an oven-proof casserole dish or frying pan. Place the potatoes and lemon wedges on top. Add heaped tablespoon of flour dissolved in 2 tablespoons of water to the sauce and stir through, to thicken. Pour over the chicken and potatoes and pop the pan under broil/grill for 5-7 minutes to brown slightly. This step is optional as the tagine will be ready to be served right away. I like to finish the whole thing with some toasted almonds and fresh parsley.
- Serve with couscous, rice or cauliflower rice for a lower-carb version.
Meg R
This is now one of our go to recipes. It's incredible simple to make and so so tasty. We've also frozen left overs that were delicious later. Thanks!
Deanna
Hello! This looks delicious and I am looking forward to trying it. Couple questions: The recipe calls for 1/4 teaspoon of "chili". What is this? Chili powder? Ground chili peppers? Will you please be more specific? It's in with the spices so I am leaning towards one of the former rather than something like chili sauce.
Any suggestions on the olives? Should I use Kalamata olives which have that little bitterness, or some other type? Should they be oil cured or brined, or doesn't it matter? Since this is a rural area and our local store only carries the canned black olives and jarred green olives, I will have to go to the city to find some and I would like to know what kind I am looking for.
Thanks!
Instant Pot Eats
Chili flakes or powder will work here. Green olives, brined (canned.jarred) are great in this recipe.
Angela
Really tasty and a nice flexible recipe. I didn't have orange juice, so swapped in 2 satsumas broken into segments. This worked really well. Didn't bother with browning but ladled off some juices and thickened with cornstarch. Definitely benefited from the thickening, whichever way you do it. Really tasty recipe - my picky teenager commented how much she liked it.
Mindy T.
What modifications would need to be made if I did this recipe with boneless skinless breasts instead of thighs? I’m thinking the cooking time might be a little shorter so the chicken doesn’t dry out, but anything else? The recipe looks scrumptious, can’t wait to try it!
Anonymous
The chicken isn't going to dry out because of all the liquid; I don't think you need to worry!
Crystal
This dish is a flavor journey! After prep it comes together quick and easy.
Meg R
This recipe is as delicious as it is easy! We've served it to friends on two occasions and they all loved it too.
It also freezes and reheats well. Try it, you'll like it!
Ann Fabrizio
So happy your friends enjoyed it Meg!
Juliet Cullins
Delicious! I didn’t do the part with the broiler and it came out great! I did add a little bit of gluten free flour to thicken but it really didn’t need it.
Danna
Hubby said this could go to the top of the list for recipes to make again. Definite winner.
Instant Pot Eats
So happy to hear this, Danna 🙂
VilleMaura
I used dates instead of apricots. Worked wonderfully. Didn’t broil or thicken the sauce. Very very good recipe!
Instant Pot Eats
Thank you, glad you liked it even without the final broiling.
Reem
Hi! I just made this, and OH MY GOD! I can't believe how good it is! I followed the recipe exactly, and did the broiler step for about 10 minutes. Just perfect! This will be a weekly meal for my family for sure. Thank you so much for sharing this recipe!
Grace Ehrman
I mad this tonight for dinner. Was excellent. Took longer to put together than stated, but, worth the effort. The only reason for 4 stars and not 5. Made Isreale coocoos but that was really not needed. A bit of nann bread or equivalent would do. Taste was lovely. If you have all the spices in house, (which I do), if but if you don't this can be a bit on the budget to put it all together.
The Insta Pot makes it easy, and I really didn't see any need to broil the final product - don't spend the time with that.
Gracce Ehrman
You can't print out the recipe without getting all the ____________/blank, boxes with advertisements on it. Have resorted to email the recipe to myself, and hopefully will be able to get the entire recipe to print without the ads in the middle of the directions. Love your site, but not all the ads. Understand that is how you get paid, but, enough is enough.
Anne
Can you convert to stovetop/oven/slow cooker? Quite scared of instapot!
Instant Pot Eats
Hi Anne, you absolutely can make this using other methods. If you search for Moroccan chicken with lemon and olives online, you will most likely find a few options. In terms of the Instant Pot, you're not alone with being a bit scared of it. That's why we created this hub with all the info you might need to get comfortable with the Instant Pot cooking.
Anna
Holy s^*t! This is quite literally the best dish I’ve ever made. It was easy and quick enough for a weeknight and it’s unique to what I usually make in my kitchen. Can’t wait to make this again! The flavors are amazing.
Instant Pot Eats
Thanks so much for the kind feedback, Anna.