Chakhokhbili (Georgian Chicken Stew)

How to cook Chakhokhbili?

Gamarjoba, gourmets! Today they were Chakhokhbili with chicken. Classic Georgian recipe.

Chakhokhbili is…

What is chakhokhbili? After hearing this name, you can’t even imagine what it could be! There are no guesses and assumptions at all. Neither in the piece nor the color can be guessed. The answer is simple: chakhokhbili is a dish from the ancient and most beautiful country of Georgia, shrouded in towering mountains with the purest air and kind and hospitable people living there. Chakhokhbili in Georgia has long been cooked as a traditional dish. Initially, a simple recipe for chakhokhbili contained mentions that it is necessary to cook from pheasant, but where to find pheasant in our cities. Therefore, most people prefer to cook chakhokhbili from chicken.

Chakhokhbili from chicken is a simple recipe in a frying pan.

Today we bought chicken thighs in the store to prepare this dish. To make it satisfying and delicious for the whole family, we cut the chicken thighs in half with a sharp knife. The place of the incision of the thigh is chosen by the cartilage of the joint, so the pieces will be more accurate and there will be no fragments of chicken bones during the meal. Fry the chicken in a frying pan. Take a deep frying pan or a saucepan with a thick bottom.

For the delicious thick sauce in which chakhokhbili is cooked, we took fresh tomatoes, to enhance their taste, you can add tomato paste at your discretion. Tomatoes can be finely chopped or mashed with a blender.
If you decide to cook this dish when the tomatoes have not yet ripened in your garden or have not been delivered to the store, then you can use canned ones. One can of canned non-salted tomatoes is enough to make it delicious.

Surprisingly, the composition of chakhokhbili includes spices (we will tell you about them later), tomatoes, poultry meat and a lot of onions. The onion variety is suitable for white or yellow. Cut it into medium cubes and pass it for about 30 minutes.

The main part of chakhokhbili, as a conductor of a symphony orchestra, is spices.
Spice Set:

• fragrant fresh cilantro and basil leaves
• garlic
• utsko-suneli (blue fenugreek), which gives a slight hint of nutty flavor that complements the taste of tomatoes.

All the ingredients will combine into one symphony of taste and aroma, languishing under the lid of the frying pan. The smell of chakhokhbili will fill your entire kitchen with aromas as soon as you open the lid. It’s incredible!

More Georgian recipes:

• Lobio Georgian Bean Stew
• Georgian Chicken Satsivi
• Khachapuri (Georgian Cheese Bread)
• Georgian salad
• Ajapsandali (Georgian Stewed Vegetables)

Recipe type: Stew

Recipe type: Georgian

Yield: 4

Prep time: 1 hour

Cook time: 1 hour 40 mins

Total time: 2 hrs 40 mins

Ingredients:

White onion — 3 pieces

Garlic — 3 cloves

Chicken thigh — 1 kg

Tomatoes (or canned) — 500 grams

Salt — 1 teaspoon

Ground black pepper — ½ teaspoon

Tomato paste — 3 tablespoons

Ground coriander — 1 teaspoon

Utsko-suneli — 1 teaspoon

Sugar — 1 tablespoon

Hot pepper — ¼ teaspoon

Fresh basil — 1 bunch

Olive oil — 4 tablespoons

Cilantro — 1 bunch

Directions:

1. Finely chop the garlic or three on a grater.

2. Peel the onion and cut into medium cubes.

3. Chicken thighs are cut in half at the joint of the bone.

4. Add salt and pepper to the pieces of chicken thighs.

5. Pour boiling water over the tomatoes for 1 minute. Dip in ice water for 1 minute. Make an incision with a cross and peel.

6. Finely chop tomatoes or puree them in a blender.

7. Add 3 tablespoons of tomato paste to a cup of tomatoes. Mix it up.

8. Spice mixture: ground coriander, utsko-suneli, sugar, hot pepper.

9. Basil and cilantro leaves cut finely.

10. Heat the olive oil in a deep frying pan or saucepan with a thick bottom over medium heat.

11. Fry chicken thighs in oil. 3 minutes on each side. Set aside.

12. Add the onion to the pan where the chicken was. Cover with a lid. Cook for 30 minutes. Stir every 10 minutes.

13. Put the fried chicken thighs on the onion in a frying pan.

14. Add a mixture of spices and basil to a cup of tomatoes. Mix it up.

15. Add tomatoes and spices to the pan, so that tomatoes completely covered the whole chicken and onion.

16. Cover the pan and cook for 40 minutes.

17. Add chopped coriander leaves and garlic. Mix gently.

18. Wait until the dish cools down a little. Store in the refrigerator for up to 3-4 days.