The best recipes for making Kharcho soup at home

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Prepared by: Julia Vetrina

02/06/2019 Cooking time: 50 min

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Many of us are familiar with the Georgian soup “Kharcho”, but not everyone decides to cook it. But in vain, because there are affordable options that you can do at least every day! For example, this one is one of those.

How to cook kharcho soup correctly

Aromatic, satisfying and rich, kharcho soup is good for winter lunches, when it’s frosty outside and you want to warm up. A popular Georgian dish, a cross between meat soup and stew, has long taken root in Russian cuisine. It's hard to resist, especially if the kharcho is prepared according to all the rules. But in order to enjoy this dish, you don’t have to go to a Caucasian restaurant. Let's talk about how to properly prepare delicious kharcho soup at home in compliance with Georgian traditions.

Quick soup with rice and duck

The peculiarity of this recipe is that the soup with duck and rice can be cooked in just half an hour. To prepare it you need to take smoked duck breast. Rice should be soaked in advance, so it will be more rich in the soup.

How to cook duck soup with rice at home? Take the following ingredients:

smoked duck breast – 300 g;
rice – 300 g;
one head of onion;
half a head of garlic;
two tablespoons of sour cream;
4-5 potatoes;
two large carrots;
green beans – 200 g.

Step by step preparation steps:

Pour 4 liters of water into a deep saucepan, put it on high heat and bring the water to a boil. Salt to taste, then add pre-soaked and washed rice. Peel the potatoes, cut into cubes and add to the rice. Add frozen green beans to the soup after five minutes. Close the lid and let the soup boil.
In the meantime, we are preparing a dressing for duck soup with rice. You need to take a frying pan, pour a small amount of vegetable or butter on it, finely chop the onion and fry in oil.
Grate the carrots on a coarse grater, add to the onion and fry. Add two tablespoons of full-fat sour cream to the dressing. Finely chop the garlic with a knife or grate it and add it to the dressing. Add the prepared onion and carrot dressing to the pan after five minutes. Close the lid and let the soup boil.
Add vegetable dressing to the soup, mix everything thoroughly, and taste for salt. If necessary, add some salt to the soup with duck and rice; you can add black peppercorns and bay leaves for flavor.
Before the end of cooking, we cook the smoked duck breast. For this, cut the meat into thin strips, put it in the soup and cook for another 5 minutes until it boils completely over high heat. Pour the finished dish into plates and serve in portions.

What is kharcho

No one knows when the kharcho recipe first appeared in Georgian cuisine. It is known that once the word “kharcho” was used to describe beef in a sauce made from walnuts and thin slices of dried tklapi plum puree. A little later, rice began to be added to kharcho, and now in the Caucasus it is believed that real kharcho is cooked from beef, tklapi, walnuts and rice. In the summer months, plum puree is replaced with fresh plums or tkemali sauce. It is also possible to add other products to the dish, because in different regions of Georgia, kharcho is prepared in its own way, and each recipe claims to be a classic. The delicious beef broth with its piquant plum sourness, delicate flavor of walnuts and spicy aroma of spices and herbs remains unchanged. Sometimes plums are replaced with prunes, tomatoes, tomato paste or pomegranate juice.

At what point do you add salt?

Most likely, the lamb is already ready by the time the vegetables are sautéed. Transfer the contents of the frying pan to a saucepan with boiling broth and bring to a boil again. According to the rules of cooking, salt should be added exactly at this moment, but nothing bad will happen if you add salt at the very beginning, when you just set the broth to cook, or at the end, when all the ingredients are ready.

It is important to correctly calculate the amount of salt. An experienced housewife always knows how much salt to put in her favorite pan. For beginners, add 10 grams of salt per 1 kg (1 liter). In any case, it is better to put less than to over-salt - over-salt on the table! You should be especially careful when salting kharcho, because a lot of spices are added to it, which themselves enhance the taste.

Although it is usually advised to salt the dish at the very end, in practice this results in salty broth and lean vegetables with meat, the taste is uneven. It is optimal to do this 20 - 30 minutes before the end of cooking.

If the meat is cooked in large pieces, you need to take it out, cool it a little, cut it into small pieces and put it back into the boiling soup.

Cooking kharcho soup correctly: preparing the meat

Classic kharcho soup is usually prepared from beef, but since there are many different recipes for this dish, it is acceptable to use lamb, pork and chicken. The meat must be the freshest and highest quality. It is best to take beef with a bone, pork ribs or fillet, lamb brisket, shoulder or neck, and if you decide to cook chicken kharcho, both thighs and breast will do. The meat is washed well, cleaned of films and tendons, but whether it is worth removing bones and fat is a personal matter for each housewife. Some cooks believe that bones add richness and flavor to the broth. If you cook a dietary version of kharcho, then fat, of course, will be superfluous, although it makes the soup much tastier. The meat is removed from the finished broth, the broth is filtered, the meat is separated from the bones, cut into pieces and returned to the broth. The basis for Georgian kharcho is ready!

Choosing the right meat for kharcho

You can prepare lamb kharcho according to the classic recipe, using either ribs or pulp. This will change the cooking time until the meat is done. But still, the ideal would be the neck, shank (lower part of the front leg) or shank (lower part of the back leg) of the ram. The loin (ribs), shoulder (top of the front leg), and leg (top of the back leg) have more fat, so the soup may be too rich. And of course, it is necessary to take into account the age of the animal. The older the lamb, the longer it will have to be cooked.

It is better to use chilled meat, because when defrosted, the product loses its nutritional value, and with repeated freezing and thawing it generally turns into something indigestible. In addition, with chilled lamb it is easy to determine its quality, which cannot be said about frozen lamb, of course, if you did not freeze it yourself.

Secrets of cooking kharcho

Well-washed rice of any kind, except crushed and steamed, is placed in the finished broth. Round rice is ideal for this dish, as it looks very appetizing when cooked. While the rice is cooking, add onion sautéed until golden brown, bay leaf, slightly mashed black peppercorns, crushed walnuts, cherry plum pieces or fresh plum puree (prunes, tkemali, pomegranate juice). In some recipes you can also find tomatoes - they are usually used without skin in crushed form. But it is best to take cherry tomatoes, which give the soup originality. Towards the end of cooking, spices are introduced into the kharcho - suneli hops, red capsicum, saffron, coriander, adjika and any tasty spices. If you are cooking for children, do not add hot spices to the dish. After the kharcho soup is ready, add finely chopped garlic, chopped parsley, cilantro, rosemary and celery greens to the pan.

The sequence of adding ingredients and cooking time may vary depending on the recipe. Sometimes kharcho is prepared with bell peppers, carrots and potatoes, Italians generously add olives and basil to the dish, and the French prepare kharcho with cheese and cashew nuts. The soup is steeped for 20 minutes to make it more piquant, spicy and rich.

Recipe for properly sautéing vegetables

In cooking, there are clear rules regarding cutting: if round grains are used, everything is cut into cubes, if vermicelli - into strips. There are, of course, exceptions, for example, pilaf. After all, there is rice and the carrots are cut into strips, but this does not spoil the dish at all, and most people do not even think about the shape of the cut. In this sense, kharcho meets culinary standards.

Cut the onion and carrots into 0.5*0.5*0.5 cm cubes and fry in vegetable oil. There is a simple method to remove the skin from a tomato. Pour boiling water over the tomatoes so that the water completely covers the fruit. After 10 minutes, drain the water and the film can be easily removed, leaving only the ripe pulp. Cut the tomatoes into cubes or chop with a blender, and place them in a deep frying pan where the onions and carrots are fried. Simmer over low heat for about 12 - 15 minutes. Properly sautéed tomatoes acquire a bright red color, because they contain fat-soluble coloring substances, which, during the frying process, when the tomato juice evaporates, turn into vegetable oil. This is how you get a bright, burning color. In kharcho cooked according to the classic recipe, it is customary to add fresh tomatoes, but you can always experiment, for example, add tomato sauce or paste, pickled tomatoes or tomatoes in their own juice. This is for those who love an even richer, thicker tomato taste.

Add tkemali sauce, khmeli-suneli seasoning, finely chopped or ground red hot pepper in a blender to the finished sauté. You can use ready-made seasoning specifically for kharcho soup. It is sold in markets, at spice stalls. When purchasing, you can consult the seller and adjust the spiciness of the set by adding red pepper.

Cooking classic beef kharcho at home

Classic kharcho soup is cooked in beef broth without onions, carrots, potatoes and tomatoes. Cook broth from 400 g of beef on the bones and 2 liters of water - this will take about 2 hours. Strain the broth, separate the meat from the bones, cut it into pieces and put it back into the pan. Add 4 tbsp to the broth. l. rice, a few sprigs of parsley and cilantro (then do not forget to take them out), and when the rice becomes soft, add half a glass of roasted crushed walnuts to the soup. At the very end of cooking, add a finely chopped head of garlic, the remaining chopped herbs, salt, 1 tsp. hops-suneli, tklapi plate or 3 tbsp. l. tkemali A pleasant sourness is a must in kharcho - it is this that gives the dish a unique Georgian flavor.

If you want to learn more about how to cook kharcho, take a look at our catalog with recipes and photographs, experiment and surprise your guests. Kharcho soup is served with fragrant homemade bread or lavash. This dish is not only appetizing, but also healthy - maybe that’s why there are so many long-livers in the Caucasus?

Kharcho with chicken broth

Many people prefer chicken broths due to their easy digestibility. So in this case, chicken kharcho can be safely classified as a dietary dish.

If you decide to cook kharcho with chicken, our classic step-by-step recipe with photos will come in handy.

So, first you should stock up on all the necessary components in advance

Below is a list of ingredients that you will need to prepare kharcho soup based on chicken broth. This will be enough to cook 3 liters of aromatic, delicious food for lunch.

Chicken – 0.5 kg
Rice - 1.5 cups
Onions – 1 pc.
Garlic – 1 head
Tomato paste – 2 – 3 tbsp.
Salt, spices to taste

To prepare kharcho, some people also use carrots, fresh tomatoes and potatoes, but this is at the discretion of the housewife.

Cooking process

First you need to properly defrost and rinse the chicken, and cook broth from it. Here it is necessary to take into account this point - if you need to get a rich broth, then the bird is dipped into boiling water. By filling it with cold water and putting it on the fire, you will get a weaker broth, but the chicken will cook faster and become softer.

When the meat is ready, it is removed from the pan, cooled and cut into portions. Then they proceed according to the following algorithm.

The finished broth should be strained through 2 layers of gauze - this will make it transparent.

If you plan to add potatoes to the soup, now is the time to put them in the pan. Tubers should be no more than 1/3 of the total volume of the dish. You can cut it into small cubes or into longitudinal strips (as you like).

After boiling the potatoes until half cooked, add washed rice to the broth. It is better to take cereals that are not steamed or crushed, but choose a starchy variety.

At the same time, frying is done in vegetable oil - from chopped onions and tomato paste. You can also fry grated carrots, as well as slices of fresh tomato (they will give the kharcho the necessary sourness). First, remove the skin from the tomato by dousing the vegetable first with boiling water, then with a stream of cold water.

Before removing the roast from the heat, add garlic. If the goal is to make the soup spicier, then the cloves should be chopped (preferably crushed). Leaving them whole results in a richer aroma. But then, when serving the soup, you need to carefully ensure that the garlic cloves do not fall into the plate.

When the rice is ready (it needs about 7 minutes, no more), the soup is salted and the frying is added, and spices are added.

Now all that remains is to turn off the heat and let the kharcho brew for a few minutes. When serving, put chicken meat into each serving plate, add a little butter and crush with fresh herbs.

But you can put this whole addition on the dining table so that everyone can use these ingredients to their own taste. Perhaps someone would like to add a spoonful of sour cream to the kharcho.

For duck kharcho you will need:

for a 4 liter pan

Duck – 1 carcass; Water; Onions – 2-3 heads; Garlic – 4-5 cloves; Tomato – 1 piece; Natural adjika (spice concentrate) – 1 tablespoon; Crushed walnuts (very finely, like flour) - 1/2 or 3/4 cup; Greens, more of any kind: cilantro, parsley, basil, green onions; Ready-made seasoning for kharcho or soup (mixture of herbs: coriander seeds, hops-suneli, turmeric, reikhan, kondari, etc.) – 1 tablespoon; Salt.

Vegetable oil for frying.