Many dishes of Caucasian cuisine have beautiful and sonorous names, and their taste is, most often, spicy and memorable. The same can be said about chakhokhbili from chickens, the recipe of which requires special attention. I must say that in the initial version this dish was prepared from pheasant meat. However, now the recipe includes the meat of almost any bird, but more often they take chicken, since it is most accessible and widespread.
Let's try to cook chakhokhbili from chickens. The recipe for this dish is far from one. You can find a large number of options, while many housewives believe that it is they who cook correctly. In fact, variations should only be welcomed, because they allow you to make the taste of Chakhokhbili more intense. There are only two conditions that must be met: water is not used for cooking (only for washing products) and fat.
So, the preparation of chakhokhbili begins with the preparation of chicken. The carcass is washed, cleaned of giblets and chopped into portioned pieces. Sometimes on the shelves you can find ready-made kits for chakhokhbili, which can only be thawed and start cooking. Chicken is fried in a pan without oil until golden brown. So that she does not stick to the dishes, it is better to take care of this in advance and take a teflon-coated pan. Tomatoes are boiled over with boiling water, the peel is removed from them, they are cut into cubes and put with meat. In their juice, the chicken languishes for about half an hour. Then comes the onion, sliced in rings and added to the dish. Thus, chicken meat with vegetables languishes for several more minutes, after which salt, spicy herbs or ready-made seasoning is added. The result is a rather spicy but aromatic dish. In winter, not everyone has the opportunity to get fresh tomatoes, and their taste is not so saturated, so when cooking chakhokhbili from chickens, the recipe may contain tomato paste instead of fresh vegetables.
You can cook this dish according to the following recipe, while replacing the carcass with chicken drumsticks. The meat is fried in a pan. It is better if this is done without oil and fat, in extreme cases, very little is added. The onions are peeled and finely chopped, put on the chicken, the dish is poured with thick tomato paste, several tablespoons of table wine, salt and spices are added. Too thick sauce is recommended to be diluted with a small amount of meat broth. Everything is extinguished under a closed lid on a small fire for about an hour. Shortly before the end, fresh or dried herbs (parsley, basil, coriander and others) are thrown here. All contents are gently mixed and served on the table.
If you need to make Georgian chakhokhbili, the recipe for cooking can be taken as follows. Chicken carcass is cut into portions (you can make them more or less - to taste). For cooking, it is better to use cast-iron dishes, a stewpan or a pan with a thick bottom. Here the meat is laid out and fried on all sides until golden brown over medium heat. On a small amount of butter, the onion sliced into rings is passivated until soft, laid out in the chicken. Bell pepper is cut into rings, fried for some time, and also transferred to a stewpan. Peeled and sliced tomatoes are added to the chicken with vegetables, white or red wine is poured. Everything is stewed over medium heat until the alcohol evaporates, after which it is closed with a lid and left at minimum temperature for half an hour. After that, chopped greens, salt, spices are added to the dish, it is stewed for about five minutes and removed from the stove. You can serve chakhokhbili from chickens.
You can choose any recipe for this dish, but you always get a juicy, tender and spicy dish that will help diversify the menu.