Tarragon chicken with creamy white beans
Tender chicken in a creamy white bean sauce with fresh tarragon.
About 30 min · 375 kcal · 43 g protein per serving
One pan
Slow cooker chicken tagine with chickpeas and olives
Chicken breast cooked slowly with carrots, chickpeas and warm North African spices, finished with olives and lemon and served on couscous. It makes four boxed dinners from one pot, and the sauce keeps the chicken moist when it is reheated.
By The foodose editorial team. Nutrition calculated from USDA FoodData Central. Checked on paper on 16 October 2026; not yet cooked in a test kitchen or photographed, so the times and yield are estimates. How we develop our recipes
What still needs a real kitchen
- Confirm 4 cm breast chunks reach 74°C in 3 to 4 hours on LOW without drying
- Confirm the pressure-cooker timing of 8 minutes plus a 10 minute release
- Photograph the finished bowl
- Time
- About 3 hr 45 min
- estimated
- Serves
- 4
- see below
- Energy
- 510 kcal
- per serving
- Protein
- 46 g
- per serving
Ingredients for 4 servings
Check off ingredients as you go.
Contains gluten. Check the labels on packaged ingredients:
- chopped tomatoes. Tinned tomatoes vary in added salt; the sodium figure uses a standard salted tin.
- chicken stock. Stock often contains celery, and sometimes gluten or soya; check the label.
- black olives. Olives are packed in brine and are salty; rinsing removes some of it.
Cooking steps
Slice the onion, cut the carrots into 1 cm rounds and crush the garlic. Put them in the slow cooker, sit the chicken on top, and sprinkle over the cumin, ground coriander, cinnamon, ground ginger and paprika.
Pour in the stock, then add the drained chickpeas, the tinned tomatoes and the honey. Stir once, gently, so the spices coat the chicken without pushing it down into the liquid.
Cover and cook on LOW for 3 to 4 hours or HIGH for 2 to 2 and a half hours, until the carrots are tender and the thickest chunk of chicken reaches 74°C. In an electric pressure cooker, layer it the same way with the tomatoes last and unstirred, cook at high pressure for 8 minutes, then release naturally for 10 minutes before checking.
Cooked when: 74°C / 165°F in the thickest part. A food thermometer is the reliable way to tell.
Stir in the olives and lemon juice and leave the lid off for 10 minutes on HIGH, or on the sauté setting, so the sauce thickens slightly.
Meanwhile, put the couscous in a heatproof bowl, pour over 240 ml of just-boiled water, cover with a plate for 5 minutes, then separate the grains with a fork.
Serve the tagine over the couscous, scattered with the chopped fresh coriander. To prep ahead, divide it between containers, leave them uncovered until the steam stops, no more than an hour, then cover and refrigerate or freeze.
The useful detail
Breast meat goes stringy if it sits in a slow cooker all day. Laying it on top of the vegetables and stopping at 3 to 4 hours on low keeps it tender; the carrots go underneath because they need the longest contact with the heat.
Make it work for you
One serving is A ladle of tagine, about a quarter of the pot, over 40 g of couscous. You can switch to a smaller portion in the ingredients above; it is three quarters of this, and it contains correspondingly less energy and protein. It is an option, not a goal.
Turkey breast instead of chicken
Leaner and a little firmer; check it at the start of the time range.
Per serving: about 10 kcal less, about 2 g more protein, about 2 g less fat.
Quinoa instead of couscous
Nuttier and firmer, and it holds up better after freezing.
Per serving: about 30 kcal less, about 1 g less protein, about 2 g more fat.
Allergens: Removes gluten.
Butter beans instead of chickpeas
Softer and creamier; they break down a little into the sauce.
Per serving: about 15 kcal less, about the same protein, about 1 g less fat.
Estimated nutrition
Per standard serving, calculated from the ingredients above. Nutrition changes with substitutions, brands and how much oil stays in the pan.
A one-pot dinner where the chicken carries the protein and the chickpeas and carrots most of the fibre, with the couscous kept to 40 g a portion.
| Energy | 510 kcal |
|---|---|
| Protein | 46 g |
| Fat | 9 g |
| of which saturates | 1 g |
| Carbohydrate | 63 g |
| of which sugars | not calculated |
| Fibre | 11 g |
| Sodium | 740 mg |
Show calculation notes
Each ingredient’s weight is multiplied by its USDA FoodData Central values per 100 g. The whole recipe is added up and divided by 4. Raw weights are used for meat, fish and vegetables; beans and lentils are drained weights. All of the oil is counted as eaten. Added salt is not included; sodium from stock, bread, cheese and tinned food is.
| Ingredient | Weight used | Source | Energy | Protein |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| chicken breast | 600 g | FDC 171077Chicken, broiler or fryers, breast, skinless, boneless, meat only, raw | 720 kcal | 135.0 g |
| onion | 150 g | FDC 170000Onions, raw | 60 kcal | 1.7 g |
| carrot | 250 g | FDC 170393Carrots, raw | 103 kcal | 2.3 g |
| garlic | 10 g | FDC 169230Garlic, raw | 15 kcal | 0.6 g |
| ground cumin | 4 g | FDC 170923Spices, cumin seedFoodData Central records cumin seed; ground cumin is the same seed, milled. | 16 kcal | 0.7 g |
| ground coriander | 2 g | FDC 170922Spices, coriander seed | 5 kcal | 0.2 g |
| ground cinnamon | 1.5 g | FDC 171320Spices, cinnamon, ground | 3 kcal | 0.1 g |
| ground ginger | 2 g | FDC 170926Spices, ginger, ground | 6 kcal | 0.2 g |
| paprika | 2.5 g | FDC 171329Spices, paprika | 6 kcal | 0.3 g |
| chopped tomatoes | 400 g | FDC 170051Tomatoes, red, ripe, canned, packed in tomato juice | 64 kcal | 3.2 g |
| chickpeas | 240 g | FDC 173800Chickpeas (garbanzo beans, bengal gram), mature seeds, canned, drained solids | 334 kcal | 16.9 g |
| chicken stock | 265 g | FDC 174536Soup, chicken broth, ready-to-serve | 16 kcal | 1.7 g |
| honey | 7 g | FDC 169640Honey | 21 kcal | 0.0 g |
| black olives | 60 g | FDC 169094Olives, ripe, canned (small-extra large) | 70 kcal | 0.5 g |
| lemon juice | 15 g | FDC 167747Lemon juice, raw | 3 kcal | 0.1 g |
| couscous | 160 g | FDC 169699Couscous, dryFoodData Central's record for dry couscous has no sugars value, so sugars are left uncalculated for this recipe rather than guessed. | 602 kcal | 20.4 g |
| fresh coriander | 15 g | FDC 169997Coriander (cilantro) leaves, raw | 3 kcal | 0.3 g |
| Whole recipe | Divided by 4 | 2047 kcal | 184.2 g |
Per serving the energy is rounded to the nearest 5 kcal, grams to the nearest whole gram and sodium to the nearest 10 mg. of which sugars could not be calculated, because one ingredient’s record does not cover it; the row above says which. Calculation method 1.0, September 2026. How the calculation works.
Storage and reheating
- In the fridge
- Cool, cover and refrigerate within 2 hours of cooking. Eat within 3 to 4 days. Couscous swells overnight, so add a splash of water before reheating.
- In the freezer
- The FDA chart gives cooked poultry dishes 4 to 6 months in the freezer for best quality. Freeze the tagine and couscous in the same container if you like; the couscous keeps its texture well.
- Reheating
- Reheat until it reaches 74°C / 165°F, steaming hot throughout.
Checked against US Food and Drug Administration, Refrigerator and Freezer Storage Chart, USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service, Leftovers and Food Safety, FoodSafety.gov, Safe Minimum Internal Temperatures and FoodSafety.gov, Cold Food Storage Chart. UK guidance from the Food Standards Agency is shorter, at two days for most leftovers.
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