Chicken with Preserved Lemon

Wow. This had all the earmarks of disaster: missing ingredients, timing off, quantities dicey, but was, in the end, a triumph of triumphs. It's from Authentic Moroccan Recipes by Fatema Hal, and features a chicken browned in oil with salt, pepper, ground ginger, and caraway (should have been something called "nigella seed,"), then simmered in water with saffron (I didn't have any) and a preserved lemon (I had some). As I sat there reducing the sauce at the end, I thought, no way is this ever going to be good. Then I started eating it (over brown rice) and simply couldn't stop. I would never have been able to pick out the ingredients in it if I hadn't made it; together they became a flavor all their own.