Chakhokhbili
Chicken cooked with no liquid at all beyond what the tomatoes and onions give up, then finished with a great deal of fresh herbs off the heat. Georgian, and the herbs are half the dish.
Photograph credit: Chakhokhbili Closeup by Georgian Recipes at Georgia About · CC BY 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons
No stock, no water: the onions and tomatoes provide all the liquid, which is why they are cooked covered at first and why the pan must be heavy. That concentration is the point — a stew with stock in it dilutes exactly what this dish is trying to build. The herbs go in at the very end and are not simmered, because coriander, dill and basil lose their volatile aromatics within a minute of heat, and the fresh, almost raw hit of them against the rich chicken is the signature of the dish.
Chakhokhbili: Step by Step
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Season the chicken with 1 teaspoon of the salt. Heat the oil in a heavy casserole and brown the pieces skin side down over medium-high heat for 6 minutes, then turn and brown 3 minutes more. Lift out.
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Pour off all but 2 tablespoons of the fat. Add the onions with a pinch of salt and cook 12 minutes over medium heat, scraping the base, until soft and golden.
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Add the garlic and cook 1 minute, then the tomatoes, coriander, savory, fenugreek, chilli flakes, black pepper and remaining salt.
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Return the chicken with any juices, pushing the pieces down among the tomatoes. Add no liquid at all.
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Cover and cook over a low heat for 35 minutes. The tomatoes and onions will release plenty of liquid.
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Uncover and cook a further 12 to 15 minutes, until the sauce has thickened and the chicken is falling from the bone.
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Take the pan off the heat and stir in the vinegar and all four herbs at once.
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Cover and leave 5 minutes before serving, so the herbs wilt in the residual heat without cooking.
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Worth Getting Right
- No stock and no water. If it looks dry at the start, keep the lid on rather than adding liquid.
- Herbs off the heat. Simmered, they turn khaki and taste of nothing.
- Ripe tomatoes matter here more than usual. Out of season, use good tinned ones plus a tablespoon of purée.
If You're Missing Something
- An eighth of a teaspoon of garlic powder per clove is the stand-in usually given when you are out of fresh garlic; it will not brown the same way, and it burns easily, so add it with the liquid.
Pairs Well With
Mchadi or crusty bread · A glass of Saperavi · Pickled vegetables
Sides from the same cuisine on this site: Adjaruli Khachapuri.
Storage
Refrigerated for 3 days. Add a fresh handful of herbs when reheating; the original ones will have faded.
Chakhokhbili Nutrition
Per serving, an approximate calculation from the ingredient list. Treat it as a rough guide: weights that include bone are counted as if all of it were eaten, so the figures run high. How the figures are worked out.
Your notes on this recipe
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Compiled by Turab
Checked by script for timings, diet labels and nutrition arithmetic. How the recipes are checked. Found a mistake? Tell us.
First published ; last changed .
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