We are all familiar with the dish - "tobacco chickens." This is a kind of symbol of the Soviet era and the times of friendship of peoples. The national dish of Georgian cuisine (although some believe that this dish first appeared in Abkhazia), it has taken root in our kitchens. And this is no coincidence: tobacco chickens are a non-laborious dish that requires a minimum of ingredients, which will be obtained even by a novice cook.
For cooking, we need the chickens themselves, salt, black pepper, garlic and vegetable oil for frying. If you are going to cook this dish for a festive table, keep in mind that the portions are small, usually each chicken is prepared for each guest. With the purchase of the main ingredient, there should be no problems, in any supermarket you can find suitable chickens. Pay attention to their size: in length, they should be slightly larger than a tablespoon. Now you need to prepare the carcass. Our future chickens need to be cut into the breast and beat well with a hammer along the spine. They should become flatter, but not lose their shape. Now sprinkle them with salt and pepper on both sides and rub with garlic. Some then immediately begin to fry, but you can lay the carcasses on top of each other and leave for a couple of hours to marinate. A variety of chicken marinades can be used. One common option is a marinade with red wine, olive oil and basil.
You can soak the chicken in beer and garlic or make it any of your choice. In order to
cook the "chicken chicken", usually use a special pan with a screw press. By the way, the name “tobacco” comes from the Georgian word tapaka, which is called this pan. In the absence of such dishes, the chicken can simply be pressed on top with a heavy lid, and put a press on it (for example, a container of water). But in any case, the dish "chicken chicken" on the grill is not prepared, only in a pan. If there is a great desire, of course, you can press the beaten up and prepared chicken carcass
with a grill and fry, but this will not be right. So, pour the vegetable oil into the pan, heat it and spread our pickled chicken. Cover with a lid and leave to fry for 15-20 minutes until a beautiful crust is formed. You do not need to constantly check and stand at the stove: we wait 15 minutes and turn it over.
Now fry on the other hand in exactly the same way, so that the meat is more tender, grease with sour cream and leave to fry for another 15 minutes. Our tobacco chickens are ready!
Serve the dish best with fresh vegetables and herbs. Boiled or baked potatoes are usually served as a side dish. By the way, in Georgia itself, such a chicken is not considered an independent dish at all. You can prepare a spicy sauce: mix sour cream with chopped garlic, salt and cilantro. In the Imereti version, tobacco chickens are served with mashed blackberries. This dish is perfect as a beer snack. They eat it, as a rule, with their hands.