Moroccan CooksRecipes from Morocco
Couscous

Couscous Tfaya — Moroccan Couscous with Caramelised Onions and Raisins

By The Moroccan Cooks KitchenUpdated

Steamed couscous under chicken and tfaya: onions cooked down for an hour with raisins, cinnamon and honey until dark and sweet. The celebration couscous.

Moroccan couscous tfaya — a mound of couscous topped with caramelised onions, raisins, almonds and chicken
Photo: Pexels
Prep
30 min
Cook
1 hr 30 min
Total
2 hr
Serves
6
Difficulty
Medium

Tfaya is what happens when you cook onions for an hour and refuse to hurry. They collapse, darken, and turn sweet with raisins, cinnamon, saffron and a little honey — and when that is spooned over steamed couscous with chicken underneath, you get the dish Moroccan families make for a wedding, a return from travelling, or the Friday after a good week.

It is not the everyday seven-vegetable couscous. There are no turnips and no pumpkin. The sweetness is the point, held in place by saffron and black pepper so that it lands as savoury rather than dessert.

The couscous itself is steamed three times, the way all Moroccan couscous is — the method is explained in full in our guide to steaming couscous. Everything else here is the tfaya, and it can be made a day ahead.

Ingredients

Servings

Makes 6 servings

For the chicken and broth

For the tfaya

For the couscous

To finish

Instructions

  1. Start the chicken

    Heat the oil in the base of a couscoussier or a large pot. Add the chicken, grated onion, ginger, turmeric, pepper, saffron water, the bunch of coriander and the salt. Turn everything over for 5 minutes, then pour in the water and bring to a simmer.

  2. Wet the couscous

    While the chicken starts, tip the couscous into a wide tray. Sprinkle over the cold water, rub it through with open fingers for a minute so every grain is damp and separate, and leave it 10 minutes to drink.

  3. First steaming

    Add the couscous loosely to the steamer basket, set it over the simmering broth, and seal the join between the two pots with a damp strip of cloth or cling film. Steam 15 minutes from when steam rises through the top.

  4. Begin the tfaya

    In a separate wide pan, heat the oil and add the sliced onions with the cinnamon, ginger, pepper, saffron and salt. Cook over a low heat, stirring every few minutes, for 45 minutes to an hour. They will go from white to soft to gold to deep amber. Low and slow — if they colour fast they are frying, not collapsing.

  5. Rake and steam again

    Tip the couscous back into the tray, break up every lump with a wooden spoon, and work in a little salted water and the olive oil once it is cool enough to handle. Rest 10 minutes, return it to the basket, reseal and steam another 15 minutes.

  6. Finish the tfaya

    When the onions are dark and jammy, stir in the drained raisins and cook 10 minutes more. Only then add the honey, and give it 5 final minutes. Honey added early burns and turns bitter. Taste: it should be sweet, but with the pepper and cinnamon clearly there behind it.

  7. Third steaming

    Rake the couscous one last time, taste for salt, and steam a final 10 minutes. Tip it into a wide serving dish and work the butter or smen through it while it is hot, lifting with your fingers so the grains stay separate.

  8. Build the dish

    Pile the couscous into a mound and hollow the top slightly. Sit the chicken in the hollow, spoon the tfaya over it, then scatter the fried almonds. Add the halved eggs around the edge if using, and dust the whole thing with cinnamon.

  9. Serve with the broth

    Pour a ladleful of the cooking broth over the couscous just before it goes to the table, and put the rest in a bowl alongside. People add more as they eat — a dry couscous is the most common fault, and the broth is the fix.

Cook’s notes

  • The tfaya keeps for four days in the fridge and reheats perfectly. Making it the day before turns this into a manageable meal rather than a project.
  • Slice the onions with the grain, not across it. They hold together through an hour of cooking instead of dissolving into mush.
  • Honey goes in at the very end, always. Added at the start it caramelises past the point you want and turns the whole pan bitter.
  • Lamb shoulder works instead of chicken — give it two hours in the broth rather than one.
  • The full three-steaming method, including what to do without a couscoussier, is set out in our guide to steaming couscous.

Recipe information

Prep time
30 min
Cook time
1 hr 30 min
Total time
2 hr
Servings
6
Calories
610 kcal per serving
Cuisine
Moroccan
Course
Main Dish
Difficulty
Medium
Keywords
couscous tfaya, moroccan couscous with caramelised onions, tfaya recipe, sweet moroccan couscous

Nutrition is an estimate per serving, calculated from the ingredient list. Values vary with brands, cuts and portion size.

couscoustfayachickencelebrationmake ahead

Frequently asked questions

What is tfaya?
Tfaya is the topping: onions cooked very slowly with raisins, cinnamon, ginger, saffron and honey until dark, soft and sweet. It is not a sauce and not a chutney — it is closer to a confit, spooned over couscous or a tagine. It can be made days ahead and improves in the fridge.
Is couscous tfaya sweet?
Yes, and deliberately so — this is the sweet-savoury side of Moroccan cooking, the same family as beef tagine with prunes. The black pepper, ginger and saffron hold the sweetness in place so it reads as a main course rather than a pudding. If it tastes like dessert, it needs more pepper and salt, not less honey.
Can I use instant couscous?
You can, and it will be acceptable. Instant couscous is pre-steamed, so it needs only one round rather than three, and the grains never get as light. If this is a dish you are making for guests, plain medium couscous and the full method is the thing worth the extra half hour.
When is this eaten in Morocco?
At celebrations — weddings, the return of someone who has been away, a family gathering. Everyday couscous is the seven-vegetable one, eaten on Friday. Tfaya is what comes out when the occasion is worth the hour of onions.

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