Day Six: Chakokhbili (Georgian Chicken Stew)

During the meal at Tbiliso mentioned in my earlier post about khachapuri, we were served a pretty little plate of Georgian chicken and herb stew. Every other dish in this meal was delicious, but this dish made the meal into one of the best I've ever eaten.

Sailing the seas of deliciousness!

The flavors seemed so familiar and reminded me somewhat of Persian food. As soon as I finished eating it, I missed it and wished I knew the name of it so I could try cooking it later.

It took a little bit of research to find out that this stew is called chakokhbili. The recipe I found on the internet seemed doable, so I looked it up in The Classic Cuisine of Soviet Georgia and found it there. The recipe didn't seem to be too complicated, but the spices involved were unfamiliar. I was able to find most of them at Penzeys down the street, but nowhere I looked had dried marigold petals.

I looked absolutely everywhere I could on the internet in search of marigold petals. I didn't find anything suitable for use in food, but I ran into this blog post when I started searching for the specific kind of fenugreek my cookbook called for. It included a link to this online spice shop that sold khmeli suneli, a Georgian spice mixture which contains fenugreek and the marigold petals I needed to complete my recipe. I ordered it immediately and was happy to know that, with this, I could bring this wonderful dish into my home!

Before this project started, I asked my foodie friend Chiana if she'd be interested in cooking this particular dish with me. Saturday morning is when the local farmers' market takes place, Chiana was available and ready to cook, and the khmeli suneli conveniently arrived yesterday. The stars have aligned just in time for an exciting moment of kitchen teamwork!

Click the link below to get to the cooking!

I bought all of the vegetables in this picture from the Oak Park Farmers' Market. I'm glad I finally had the opportunity to go! Usually, I wake up late and remember it exists when it's long been closed.

The recipe required that the tomatoes be peeled and seeded. I never did this before, but Chiana has (and truly hates the process). First, the tomatoes must be scored across the bottom.

The tomatoes are then dropped into boiling water for about a minute before they're removed and placed in an ice water bath.

The skins are easy to peel after that.

As Chiana prepared the tomatoes, I peeled the potatoes. I took so long that Chiana peeled the onions as well.

I then started cutting the chicken into manageable pieces. With the exception of the limbs, I tried to leave as few bones in the chicken as possible, reserving the bones for a future batch of chicken stock.

Chiana chopped the potatoes as I prepared the chicken and I chopped the onions after I was finished with the chicken.

I browned the chicken on both sides in a goodly amount of butter and transferred it to the pot I planned to cook the rest of the stew in.

I sauteed the onions and garlic in the leftover chicken juices and Chiana seeded the tomatoes.

As Chiana reminded me, the best time to add dry spices is when the onions are almost ready. I added the khmeli suneli and paprika to the onions and sauteed them until the mixture was fragrant.

I added the onions as well as all of the chopped ingredients, a bay leaf, and chicken stock to the stockpot. The recipe recommended that a fireproof casserole be used for cooking this dish, but I don't have one of those and a stockpot makes more sense to me.

After simmering for about a half hour, it's time to add in fresh herbs!

Basil, parsley, and cilantro, chopped and ready to go. I usually have a lot of trouble chopping herbs, but it wasn't so bad this time.

I simmered the stew for ten more minutes after adding half of the chopped herbs, and...

...there it is! Chiana was worried that the initial amount of chicken stock wasn't enough, but everything turned out all right.

Garnishing the dish with chopped herbs added a bit of freshness and made it look pretty. And the taste? Phenomenal. The spices worked together perfectly and gave this dish a very full flavor.

I thoroughly look forward to the leftovers.

It's always fun to cook with a friend! It's even more fun to feed a friend. I sent Chiana home with leftovers from other foods I cooked this week as thanks and promised to bring her some more chakokhbili in the next few days.