Chicken Tchakhokbelli (Chakhokbili)
My most recent visit with my Great Aunt included a lovely lunch with both my Great Aunt Flo and my Aunt Carolyn at Red Lobster, a trip down memory lane looking at photo albums, and of course, Aunt Flo giving me things. One of the things she gave me is this recipe, which apparently my Grandma used to make when they had company. I considered making it for Maya and Ted, but 1. It looks horrible, and 2. See number 1. They both said they would not eat it if I did make it, so why bother.
One conversation that came up was about typing, and why the bottom of the note card would be crooked like that. Also spelling without spell-check. Also realizing you made a mistake but not really wanting to re-type the entire note card, as you likely have no idea that this note card recipe will go to your granddaughter in 50 years or so.
I tried googling it, and found several variations of a more authentic recipe, and decided to make one of those instead instead. It’s amazingly different. There is chicken and onions, and you brown them, and a tomato base, but that’s about where the similarity ends. Of all the recipes I found, I decided to go with this one, because the author is from that region of the world, and has actually eaten this dish in Georgia. Fun fact: many recipes I found had the note that ‘chakhokhbili’ means ‘pheasant’, which is the traditional meat in this recipe. So I guess my Grandma would be calling it ‘chicken pheasant’, but we’re just going to call it ‘pheasant’.
Chakhokhbili
Ingredients
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 3 medium onions, peeled and thinly sliced (should equal 4 cups sliced onions)
- One 3-pound (1½ kg) chicken, cut into 10 pieces
- 6 medium ripe tomatoes, coarsely chopped (I do not peel them, but feel free to peel)
- Salt
- Ground black pepper
- 1 teaspoon khmeli-suneli (a Georgian spice mix – skip if you don’t have it)
- 4-5 cloves garlic, peeled and coarsely chopped
- Generous 1 cup chopped fresh cilantro (you can also add other herbs: parsley, tarragon basil, dill)
- Dried hot red pepper flakes or chili pepper (adjust to taste)
Instructions
- Melt the butter in a large, tall frying pan over medium heat. Add the oil (this will prevent the butter from burning). Add the onion and a pinch of salt and cook, stirring frequently, until the onion is light golden, about 10 minutes. Scoop out the onion and place on a plate, leaving the oil in the pan.
- Brown the chicken pieces on both sides in the same pan, turning once, about 3 minutes per side, or until a light golden crust forms.
- Add the onion and tomatoes to the chicken. Season with salt and pepper to taste and add the spice mix.
- Cover the pan and cook the dish over medium heat for about 30 minutes, or until the chicken is tender. Uncover the last 10 minutes and cook more.
- Meanwhile, crush the garlic and most of the cilantro (reserve some for garnish) together in a mortar and pestle until you obtain a paste.
- Turn off the heat. Add the cilantro-garlic paste to the chicken, stir to coat. Sprinkle with hot pepper to taste.
- Let stand 5 minutes, covered, before serving. Sprinkle with the reserved fresh cilantro.
- Serve with chunks of fresh, crusty bread.
My Notes:
I couldn’t find the Georgian spice mix, but the Italian Seasoning blend in my cupboard has a lot of the same items, and no rosemary, so I used that, plus for fun I threw in a TINY pinch of saffron, because I had it, and it seemed like it might be similar to the marigold that is in khmeli-sunel.
After I sautéed the onions and browned the chicken (I used almost two pounds of skinless thighs), there was a lovely fond on the bottom of the pan. I don’t know how well tomato juice deglazes a pan, so in a nod to my Grandma’s recipe, I put in a bit of red wine and deglazed the pan.
I used a can of San Marzano type tomatoes. I like the ones by Muir Glen.
I find step 4 confusing. Cook covered for 30 minutes, then uncover and cook 10 more minutes? Or cook covered for 20, then uncovered for 10? I checked it at 20 minutes and it was tender, so I went with that, uncovered, and cooked for 10 more.
Final results? Very tasty. If you like cilantro, this is a good dish. If you are not fond of cilantro, you will not like it. I am positive it is MUCH better than my Grandma’s recipe, but then again, there is no way to know for sure, since I am not allowed to make it. Would I make this dish again? Sure, it was very good, and pretty easy to make as well.
4 Comments
nance
I love the idea of serving very tender, highly-seasoned meat with crusty bread. So rustic and good!
I remember typing out my husband’s grandma’s recipes onto cards with a manual typewriter. Once I got anywhere near the bottom, the card was no longer held rolled into the platen, and would begin to move freely about, held only by the paper bar. Lots of her cards had crooked type, too.
J
Nance, that’s exactly right, and I’m pretty sure that my grandma used a manual typewriter. Maya had no idea, never having used a typewriter. I don’t know if she’s even seen one in person.
I don’t know what happened with the formatting on this post, but I think it’s fixed now. It looked fine on my iPad, but then I checked on my laptop and it was crazy. Kind of like using a manual typewriter on a note card, and then getting to use a word processor to fix it.
OmbudsBen
Might you be too hard on Grandma’s version?
Maybe combine some ingredients?
C’mon, I bet that 1/3rd cup of simmering Burgundy could be a winner (along with the Italian seasoning 🙂
J
Who knows it might be wonderful. Apparently I will never find out, because I am not allowed to make it. Then again, I cook when they are not here, so they would not know any better. Hmmm. Devious thoughts.