Circassian Chicken with Walnut Sauce
Chicken Appetizers Salads Turkish
"Çerkez Tavuğu" is its real name. It's a dish from Turkish cuisine and although it sounds strange to us Romanians to eat chicken with walnuts, it turned out unexpectedly delicious. It tastes a bit like the liver pâté with pistachios or we could consider it the Turkish version of this chicken spread.
By the way, does anyone know of an area in Romania where something similar is cooked - meat with walnuts?
Ingredients
1 chicken breast
1 teaspoon peppercorns
2 bay leaves
1/2 teaspoon salt
Walnut Sauce
80 g walnuts
5 sprigs parsley
2 green onion stalks
1 slice bread without crust
1 garlic clove
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons walnut oil (or olive oil)
1 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon sweet paprika
1 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
Servings: 3-4
How to prepare circassian chicken with walnut sauce
- Cut the chicken breast in two so it cooks faster, cover with water, add 1/2 teaspoon salt, peppercorns, and bay leaves and boil for about 45 minutes. Strain the broth and reserve it, then shred the chicken breast into strips.
- Pour about 1/3 cup broth over the bread slice and let it soak for 5 minutes.
- In a blender, put the walnuts, 3 sprigs of parsley, 1 green onion stalk (or 1/2 small dried onion), the soaked bread slice, and garlic. Blend while slowly pouring in broth (about half a cup will be needed) until you get a smooth paste that's not too soft.
- In a small pan, heat the oil and add the turmeric, chili, paprika, and salt. Stir quickly. Pour this mixture into the blender and blend a few more times. If needed, add a few more tablespoons of broth.
- Transfer the walnut sauce from the blender to a bowl, add the chicken strips and adjust salt. Add the lemon juice.
- Chop the remaining parsley and green onion and add over the salad.
- Serve on toasted bread.
Walnut oil
In the blender
Blending well
Adding the sauce
Blending again
Adding the chicken strips
Circassian Chicken with Walnut Sauce
