Even those who have never visited the Caucasus have probably tried some of the Georgian dishes. The words “tkemali”, “khachapuri” or “satsivi” warm the souls of people all over the world. And those who have already appreciated the delights of Caucasian cuisine should try chakhokhbili - made from chicken, with potatoes, onions and other vegetables. Don’t think that you will get the usual, familiar chicken stew. Herbs and spices will make the dish unique, aromatic and original.
Fundamental Rules
To get the right chicken chakhokhbili (with or without potatoes), remember the main thing: you need to fry the bird dry. No oil or fat! Firstly, this kind of frying gives a completely different taste, very different from the usual one. Secondly, you don’t have to worry about the level of fat in the carcass - all the excess will go away when fried. If it turns out too dry, there is also no reason to worry, since stewing is expected later.
Second rule: onions are required, and in large quantities. What else the chicken chakhokhbili will be prepared with - potatoes, tomatoes, carrots, eggplants or beans - depends on the flight of the cook’s imagination. There are no restrictions here.
And third - seasonings. Saffron, hot pepper pods, garlic, of course, suneli hops and bay leaves will be indispensable. However, it is not forbidden to add other herbs to the list, as long as they are combined with each other. Often the recipe includes walnuts - both the sauce is thicker and the smell is richer.
Real Georgian recipe
Classic chakhokhbili from chicken with potatoes is not prepared. However, if you wish, you can add it; it will not spoil the dish. For half of the chicken you must take 2 large onions, 3 cloves of garlic, several tomatoes and spices - many and different. If you prefer chicken thighs, remove the thick bones; if all parts of the carcass are taken, they are simply chopped coarsely.
Separately, onion, cut into halves or quarters, is fried in vegetable oil. In another (dry) frying pan, lay out the chicken pieces, skin side down, and fry until nicely browned. Then the slices are turned over; Onions are laid on top of them, and the whole thing is poured with a sauce of pureed tomatoes, garlic and spices. If you like chicken chakhokhbili with potatoes, at this stage, before adding the sauce, add coarsely chopped potatoes (4 not very large pieces). Then the container is covered with a lid and left to simmer for 20 minutes. The greens, not finely chopped, can either be added to the sauce or served separately for sprinkling. You can eat!
Georgian chicken chakhokhbili with vegetables - step-by-step recipe with photos
Juicy, aromatic and very tasty chicken thighs can be prepared using this recipe. The right combination of meat, vegetables and seasonings - nothing superfluous. At the same time, the taste is very full. I suggest preparing this dish together, right now. I hope it will take pride of place in your cookbook too.
Ingredients:
- kilogram of chicken thighs;
- a tablespoon of butter;
- 4 small onions;
- 3 medium tomatoes;
- hot pepper;
- 1 large bell pepper;
- parsley and cilantro, to taste;
- 30 grams of high quality tomato paste or sauce;
- half a teaspoon of khmeli-suneli;
- a teaspoon of granulated sugar;
- 6 cloves of garlic and salt to taste.
Step-by-step preparation:
1. Rinse the thighs thoroughly, dry and cut each into 2 parts. After all, chakhokhbili involves stewing large pieces of meat.
2. Peel the onion and cut into medium half rings.
3. Tomatoes, first of all, need to be blanched. We will do this in boiling water. Make a cross-shaped cut along the peel on the side opposite the stalk and pour boiling water over it. Leave for 4-5 minutes and drain the water. The tomatoes are now easy to peel. After this, you need to cut off the crust from the stalk and cut them into small cubes.
4. Remove seeds and soft veins from the sweet pepper. Cut into medium cubes.
5. Finely chop the garlic with a knife. Do the same with the greens.
6. Remove seeds from hot peppers. It is in them that there is that same burning sharpness. Those who like it spicy can leave the seeds, then the dish will turn out more fiery. If you are using a long pod, you can divide it in half and use only 1 part. Cut it into small pieces.
If you don't have fresh pepper on hand, you can replace it with ground pepper, to taste.
7. Now that all the ingredients are prepared, you can start cooking. First, you need to fry the meat. Place the thighs in a dry, hot frying pan without adding oil. Over medium heat, closer to maximum, fry them for 15 minutes, turning several times. Do not cover with a lid!
Multicooker recipe
This useful kitchen unit is good because you can quickly prepare almost any dish, including dishes from national cuisines. In particular, chakhokhbili from chicken with potatoes in a slow cooker is made without much difficulty and tastes just as good as when prepared in the traditional way. The ratio of products is as in the previous recipe. The cut carcass is quickly fried using the frying or baking mode. Then add the onion and cook until transparent. Next, potatoes are placed in the bowl, which should also be fried. After it, grated or cut into small cubes tomatoes are introduced, the unit switches to stewing and the time is set to 1 hour. 10-15 minutes before the end, add herbs and spices, and when the process is complete, crushed garlic. When all the ingredients are collected, the multicooker is set to heating mode for a quarter of an hour. All!
Georgian chicken (chakhokhbili with nuts)
- Cooking time: 65 minutes.
- Number of servings: 5.
- Kitchen appliances: a frying pan with a thick bottom and high sides.
Ingredients:
- chicken drumsticks – 500 grams;
- onions – 2 pieces;
- tomatoes - 3 pieces;
- red hot pepper – 3 pieces;
- walnuts – 70 grams;
- garlic – 1 clove;
- butter – 50 grams;
- fresh purple basil – 10 grams;
- fresh parsley – 10 grams;
- white wine – 100 ml;
- salt.
Recipe
- Place the drumsticks in the pan.
- Pour in the wine and simmer over low heat, covered, for 15 minutes. Be sure to stir.
- Remove the lid and continue cooking for 10 minutes.
- Cut the onion and hot pepper into large pieces.
- After the wine has evaporated, add peppers and onions to the chicken.
- Spread the butter. Mix.
- Simmer over low heat for 7-8 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Cut the tomatoes into small cubes and place them in a frying pan. Simmer for 6-7 minutes.
- Grind the nuts through a meat grinder.
- Chop the parsley, basil and garlic very finely.
- Place nuts, herbs and garlic in a frying pan.
- Stir and turn off the heat.
- Leave to steep under the lid for 10-12 minutes.
All kinds of additions
There are many options for preparing chakhokhbili from chicken with potatoes. The recipe in a slow cooker can be varied, for example, with bell pepper. For the same half a carcass, 4-5 pieces will be enough. Add the pepper immediately after the onion, before the potatoes, and fry for about ten minutes.
The option with mushrooms is no less interesting. With the same amount of chicken, they take 300 grams. The processing can be different: either fry with onions and place on the browned bird, or add at the same time as the potatoes and bring everything together until cooked.
The use of green beans would also be classic. If you bought fresh, put it along with the potatoes; if you get canned, add it at the same time as the tomatoes. In both cases, it turns out very tasty.
Chakhokhbili with potatoes
- Cooking time: 50 minutes.
- Number of servings: 12.
- Kitchen appliances: frying pan and saucepan with thick walls.
Ingredients:
- chicken drumsticks – 1 kilogram;
- onions – 5 pieces;
- potatoes - 4 pieces;
- butter – 40 grams;
- tomatoes – 6 pieces;
- sunflower oil – 75 ml;
- garlic – 2 cloves;
- cilantro – 5 sprigs;
- parsley – 6 sprigs;
- mint – 3 sprigs;
- salt;
- khmeli-suneli.
Recipe
- Cut the peeled potatoes into large cubes and cook until tender.
- Place the frying pan on low heat, add sunflower oil and add the chicken.
- Cover with a lid and cook for 6-7 minutes.
- Blanch the tomatoes and cut into cubes.
- Cut the onion into large half rings.
- Turn the chicken over and cook for another 6-7 minutes.
- Add onion to chicken and add butter. Cook for 4-5 minutes.
- Transfer everything from the frying pan to the saucepan.
- Add tomatoes and potatoes. Cook over medium heat for 7-8 minutes.
- Chop the garlic, mint, cilantro and parsley very finely.
- Place in a saucepan.
- Add salt and suneli hops. Mix.
- Cook for 5 minutes.
- Remove from heat. Cover with a lid and let sit for 20 minutes.
Wine recipe
A very interesting way to prepare chakhokhbili from chicken with potatoes in a slow cooker using wine. In principle, all actions are similar to the previous recommendations, however, at the stage of loading tomato puree, another half a glass of wine is poured into the bowl. Moreover, unlike most recipes using it, this requires not red, but white, and also semi-sweet, not dry!
To discourage possible excessive sweetness, add hot pepper and increase the amount of garlic, herbs and spices. Another nuance is that the hot pepper should be cut into strips - in most Georgian dishes it is present entirely, even with the tail and seeds. This chakhokhbili works especially well with the addition of bell pepper, but this ingredient is at your discretion.
Unusual option
It works great with wine, but if you don't like to cook with it, consider replacing it with yogurt. Naturally, you need to buy unsweetened and definitely natural, not powdered. The beginning is standard, right down to filling the bowl with finely chopped or mashed tomatoes. Before administration, they must be mixed with yogurt until smooth. One more note: to cook chakhokhbili from chicken with potatoes in a slow cooker according to this recipe, the stewing mode is set not for an hour, but for an hour and a half - the effect of tomatoes is noticeably softened by the presence of yogurt. Your individuality can also be shown by adding greenery. You can add herbs to the sauce - but then they will soften greatly, since the cooking time is increased. You can add them a quarter of an hour before cooking - if you want the whole dish to be saturated with the smell. It is permissible to put greens in the finished dish if you like them to remain juicy.
Separately, we note that this way you can prepare not only chakhokhbili from chicken with potatoes, but also with other vegetables or without them at all, only with onions.
Recipe for chicken chakhokhbili in a slow cooker
How to cook chakhokhbili quickly? Use the slow cooker recipe.
It’s tasty, light, and a great help for housewives who don’t have time, but still have a desire to eat deliciously.
Ingredients:
- Chicken – 1.5 kg
- Tomatoes – 700 g
- Bell pepper - 2 pcs
- Onion - 4 pcs.
- Garlic - 3-4 cloves
- Greens - cilantro (parsley), dill, basil
- Hot pepper - small piece
- Tomato paste - 1 tbsp. l
Preparation:
Cut the chicken into medium pieces. Turn on the “Fry” mode in the multicooker.
You need to fry the chicken without oil. Thanks to the skin, the chicken will release juice and fat and thus will be fried on it.
Salt it. Let it fry for 20 minutes in this mode. Stir and turn the contents of the pan periodically to prevent it from burning.
Cut all vegetables into small pieces. Remove the skin from the tomatoes and chop them very finely (or puree them in a blender).
When the chicken is sufficiently fried and stops secreting ichor, add chopped onion to it.
If it has not released enough fat to fry the onions, you can add a piece of butter.
Fry for another 5 minutes.
After this, add tomatoes, bell peppers, hot peppers and a spoonful of tomato paste to the multicooker bowl.
Add suneli hops to taste. Add salt to taste.
Mix everything well, close the lid and turn on the “Stew” mode for 1 hour.
When the program ends, add herbs and garlic to the finished dish.
It turns out very tasty, soft meat in a delicious vegetable gravy. And it looks very tasty!
Eat it hot. Yummy!
Chakhokhbili in the oven
Do you like it to be faster and with less fuss, but haven’t had time to buy a multicooker yet? Remember that you have an oven. It can also be very useful for preparing a variety of Caucasian dishes. So, it’s much easier to cook chakhokhbili from chicken with potatoes in the oven than in a frying pan, and you can also do something extra at the same time. The beginning is standard: the chicken is chopped and dry-fried, the onion is chopped (here you can do it finely, although it will be juicier with the same half rings). The bird is laid out on a baking sheet or in a wide low frying pan, covered with slices of potatoes (they should not be fried here) and the whole thing is covered with a layer of onions. The sauce is prepared as usual, but due to the fact that many ovens dry out the dish somewhat, it is recommended to add wine to the tomato puree with spices (as for a multi-cooker recipe). The oven is heated to two hundred degrees, and the future chakhokhbili is placed in it. Cooking time depends on the characteristics of the oven; on average it ranges from an hour to an hour and a half. And in this case, it is advised to put the greens at the very end so that, on the one hand, they do not become soggy, and on the other, they do not dry out from the heat.
Chakhokhbili in pots
It is more convenient to serve any dish in portions. For lovers of this type of serving, we recommend preparing chakhokhbili from chicken with potatoes in pots. The calculation of products here will be slightly different. For one vessel you need about a hundred grams of chicken, half an onion, one large potato and a tomato. You can also season the dish with half a sweet pepper. A clove of garlic placed for each pot can be chopped, but it is also possible to place it entirely in it. Each piece of chicken is fried without oil, all other ingredients are placed raw on top of the bird: first onions and garlic, then potatoes, and pepper on top (if you haven’t ignored it). Add salt, pepper, herbs and spices and bake in the oven for an hour. It turns out delicious and without much labor.
No matter how you decide to cook chakhokhbili from chicken with potatoes (photo), the result will invariably please you with both appearance and taste.
