Any Georgian knows very well what "chikhirtma" is. The recipes for this unusual soup are simply amazing in their variety. There are dozens of different options for its preparation. To have at least a minimal idea of the product, you can consider only the most famous and most interesting of them.
Classic version
In Georgia, every housewife must know how to make a national soup called “chikhirtma”. Recipes for its preparation include the presence of several essential ingredients, such as:
- meat;
- bow;
- flour;
- egg;
- acid;
- spice.
A distinctive feature of this soup is the complete absence of the vegetable and cereal component. The density in it is achieved by adding flour. In the cooking process, it is brewed, thereby changing the overall consistency of the dish. For the classic way of making such a soup, as a rule, you need:
chicken carcass weighing no more than 1.2 kilograms, 5 eggs, salt, 60 grams of flour, pepper, lemon, 200 grams of onions and some vegetable oil.
The whole process consists of several stages:
- First of all, the chicken should be cut into pieces, and then boil them, pouring three liters of water. It will take some time.
- Then the meat must be sorted out, separating it from the bones, and the broth - carefully strain into a clean saucepan.
- After that, finely chop the onion and lightly fry it in oil.
- In another pan, warm the flour so that it does not change color. Then, 200 milliliters of broth should be added to it and mixed well. It is desirable that the mass is obtained without lumps.
- Then, with constant stirring, the flour must be introduced into the hot broth.
- After adding the onion, put the pan on the stove. Products should cook together for 5-6 minutes.
- Beat eggs thoroughly separately, and then slowly add them to the pan along with pepper and salt. In this case, the broth should not boil much. Now the finished soup can be removed from the stove.
Before serving, it must be poured into plates. Then in each of them put a little meat, a teaspoon of lemon juice and sprinkle abundantly with chopped herbs.
Original fragrance
Using different seasonings and spices, each hostess herself decides what taste her chihirtma will have. Recipes, as a rule, depend on personal taste preferences and those products that are currently available in the house. So, for the preparation of a fragrant soup you can use the following components:
for one chicken 30 grams of flour, 1 lemon, 4 onions, 3 sprigs of cilantro and parsley, salt, 2 eggs, pepper, and 1 teaspoon of cinnamon and ground coriander.
Everything is prepared very simply:
- Cook the whole chicken, not forgetting to remove the foam. Otherwise, the broth will be very muddy.
- Remove the meat from the pan and disassemble into pieces.
- Remove the fat from the broth and fry the chopped onion on it. It is necessary that he just became a little softer.
- Dilute flour in half a glass of broth and mix it with onions.
- Pour the resulting mixture into the pan.
- After boiling, salt should be added to the soup, as well as pepper and spices. In this composition, the mass should cook for 15 minutes. Immediately after this, the pan must be removed from the heat.
- Beat eggs gently and add lemon juice to them.
- Then this mixture should be gradually introduced into the hot soup and again bring it to a boil.
Before serving, you must first arrange the meat on plates, then pour it with hot soup.
Cornmeal soup
Some housewives are mistaken, believing that real Georgian soup should be brewed only with wheat flour. In fact, you can use different options to cook this dish. In each case, a completely new “chikhirtma” is obtained. Original soup recipes may contain the following set of products:
chicken weighing just over 1 kilogram, 3 egg yolks, 2 onions, a tablespoon of saffron, salt, a mixture of herbs (parsley, bay leaves, leek and thyme), 1 bunch of cilantro, and two tablespoons of butter, corn flour and wine vinegar.
The method of preparing the soup will be as follows:
- Put the chicken in a pan and pour it with cold water.
- Add a mixture of herbs and cook for several hours until the meat is ready. After this, the broth should be drained and filtered into a pan, and the meat should be disassembled into small fibers, first separating it from the bones.
- Saffron separately pour a glass of broth and let it brew for several minutes.
- At this time, melt the oil in a pan and fry the onions in it, after finely chopping it.
- Add the flour, grind it well, and warm the products together for one minute.
- Add a little broth and stir until smooth.
- Slowly pour the resulting mass into the pan. Then you need to put it on the stove and cook the contents 10 minutes after boiling.
- Beat the yolks with a whisk in the presence of vinegar, and then introduce the resulting mass into a boiling broth.
- Add fresh saffron infusion, salt and remove the pan from the stove.
Before use, the soup should be a little infused. After that, it can be poured on plates and served to guests. Add meat and greens to each serving.
Simplified version
Some chefs use a simplified recipe. Chihirtma from chicken is sometimes prepared without flour. A thick consistency can be achieved due to the increased number of eggs. In this case, you can use the following composition:
1 chicken, 5 egg yolks, 100 grams of ghee, salt, 250 grams of onion, 50 milliliters of wine vinegar, bay leaf, peas, cilantro and herbs.
Cooking such a soup is much easier:
- First, as usual, you need to cook the broth. 30 minutes before cooking, add pepper, bay leaf and chopped herbs.
- Remove the bird from the pan and divide it into portions.
- Chop the peeled onions, fry in melted butter, and then pour into hot broth and cook for 7-10 minutes.
- Beat the yolks into a thick foam with vinegar and a thin stream, pour the resulting mass into a pan. Acid will help the eggs not curl.
- Put the meat back into the hot broth and bring it to a boil.
Now the finished soup can be safely poured into plates and served, previously decorated with chopped cilantro.
Original soup
Using non-standard ingredients, you always want to know in advance how the finished “chikhirtma” will look. A recipe with a photo in this case would be an ideal option. As an example, we can consider the process of making a popular soup, where the following are used as initial components:
6 chicken drumsticks, flour, green onions, butter, eggs, wine vinegar, turmeric, as well as spices (oregano, garlic, parsley, paprika, nutmeg, basil, dill and cumin), taken in 1 teaspoon.
All actions must be performed in turn:
- First of all, you need to cook the broth on the chicken legs.
- Then, crumble the green onion, fry it in butter.
- Add flour to it, a little broth and stir well. The mass should be quite thick, but homogeneous.
- Pour the spices prescribed by the recipe and let them stand for a while.
- Beat eggs with vinegar and combine them with aromatic infusion.
- Put all components together. To do this, pour the onion-flour mixture and egg mass into a pan with broth.
Ready-to-eat soup can be safely poured into plates. The main thing is not to forget to sprinkle it with copiously chopped greens.
A national dish
In order to get a real “Georgian chihirtma", the recipe may contain the following components:
chicken (1.5 kilograms), 1 carrot, salt, 6 onions, half a lemon, 4 eggs, 3 tablespoons of melted butter, 10 sprigs of cilantro, 1 tablespoon of flour (corn or wheat) and white wine vinegar, 1 teaspoon each ground black pepper and Imereti saffron.
Prepare the soup as follows:
- First, the chicken carcass must be cut into pieces.
- Boil water in a pan, add salt, and then dip pieces of meat into it.
- Add carrots and a whole onion. While the broth is boiling, you can do the rest of the work.
- Peel, chop and pass the onion in oil.
- Add flour to it, mix and fry until the mixture darkens.
- Strain the finished broth, and then, adding salt, saffron and pepper, put it on the fire again. The meat at this time will calmly cool on a separate plate.
- Introduce the fried onions into the boiling liquid and wait 5 minutes.
- Beat eggs well with salt and pepper. Add vinegar and mix them again, and then dilute it with broth (50 milliliters).
- Remove the soup from the heat and introduce the egg mass into it. In this position, he should insist a little.
Then, in each plate, put meat, pour it with broth, and then garnish with cilantro and a slice of lemon.
Non-standard option
How else can a “Georgian chicken chihirtma" be prepared? The recipe can be simplified as much as desired. To work, you need the following products:
chicken, 5 eggs, a bunch of cilantro, salt, 6 onions and a tablespoon of wine vinegar.
The whole technological process can be divided into stages:
- First, you need to cut the chicken into large pieces, and onions - in half rings.
- Put food in a saucepan, put on fire and simmer without adding water until half-ready. This significantly improves the taste of the finished dish.
- Add a couple of liters of water, salt, cilantro and cook slowly, constantly removing foam.
- Strain the ready-made broth, and set the meat aside for cooling.
- Beat the yolks with the addition of vinegar, and then pour them into a broth with a thin stream.
On this soup preparation can be considered complete. Further actions will concern only its serving and table setting. Here you should remember only one rule: in a soup of greens there is not much.
Fragrant Additive
Some cooks, wanting to add a special zest to the dish, make small changes to the list of products. The result is not quite ordinary, but very tasty “chikhirtma”. This name can be translated as "quenching." In fact, the dish fully lives up to its name. The most commonly cooked chicken chihirtma. A recipe with a photo allows you to see the whole picture, following each individual action. Of the products for the preparation of soup you will need:
chicken, 3 eggs, 4 tomatoes, salt, 3 onions, pepper, butter, bay leaf, seasonings and herbs (parsley, onion and dill).
This method involves the following steps:
- First, the chicken must be cut into portions, and then fry them in butter until a characteristic crust. Ready meat can be immediately put in a pan or ducklings.
- Fry the onion in the same pan and add it to the chicken. Then pour there a glass of water and simmer for 20 minutes, after slightly salting.
- Remove the stalks from the tomatoes, and grind the rest with salt in a blender. Place the mass in a saucepan, add spices and simmer for another 15 minutes.
- Beat the eggs, and then slowly pour them into the hot soup.
Before pouring it on plates, the finished dish should be allowed to brew a little.