Marrying Well: Wine & Food is my guide to pairing wine and food.  Every week, you’ll find a new wine-friendly recipe and a wine to match.  Not only will you learn how to recreate the menu at home – you’ll also learn the strategies behind why they were meant to be together.

Citrus Chicken Tagine

A tagine is a Moroccan stew with chicken or some type of meat simmered with vegetables, olives, lemon, and garlic.  It’s usually flavored with such spices as ginger, pepper, and saffron, and served over couscous.

2 teaspoons olive oil
1 pound skinless, boneless chicken thighs, coarsely chopped
1 cup chopped onion
½ cup chopped red bell pepper
¼ teaspoon ground ginger
¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon saffron threads, crushed
2 garlic cloves, minced
½ cup chicken broth
½ cup orange juice
1 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
¾ cup chopped orange sections (about 1 orange)
3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
3 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
2 tablespoons sliced pitted kalamata olives
1 tablespoon chopped lemon sections (about ½ lemon)
2 ½ cups hot cooked couscous
Flat-leaf parsley sprigs (optional)

1. Heat oil in a Dutch oven over medium heat.  Add chicken and next 6 ingredients, and cook for 12 minutes.  Stir in broth, juice, salt, and black pepper.  Bring to a boil; cover, reduce heat, and simmer 30 minutes.
2. Remove chicken mixture from heat; stir in orange and next 4 ingredients.  Serve over couscous; garnish with parsley, if desired.

Yield: 4 servings

Kuentz-Bas “Pfersigberg” Riesling

Combining fruits with meat is an ancient Mediterranean idea, and it’s the key to this citrusy chicken stew that was inspired by Moroccan tagines.  Most stews are slow-cooked for long periods until their flavors meld and mellow.  This tagine has a relatively quick cooking time so each flavor stands out singularly and brilliantly.  To complement those flavors and balance the acidity, a riesling from Alsace, France, is the perfect choice.  Alsace rieslings are fuller in body that rieslings that hail from elsewhere, and their acidity and citrusy peachiness fall right in line with the flavors of this tagine.  Among the scores of excellent Alsace rieslings available is Kuentz-Bas “Pfersigberg” Riesling.