Fresh lemons are a workhorse in my kitchen, finding their way into everything from ice cream and tarts, to bitters and homemade cheese, to my go-to household cleaner. In fact, I thought I’d pretty much exhausted my uses for lemons—that is, until a fall afternoon in 2006, when I met a friend for lunch at the then new-to-me Cafe Mogador in New York’s East Village. She knowingly ordered us matching chicken tagines without even glancing at the menu.

The dish was unlike anything I had ever tasted: intensely lemony, with a depth I couldn’t place. It was so much more than the lemon chicken it appeared to be on the plate. I later learned that its unique flavor came from preserved lemons, which added an irresistible complexity to an otherwise straightforward chicken.

Read my article on why preserved lemons belong on your shelf over on Serious Eats.