We like to change up our chicken dinners over here. Some other favorites are The Best Chicken Stroganoff Recipe, Chicken Flautas, and White Chicken Chili. I’m joining with a few adventurous food blogging friends today to explore the foods of Georgia! The country, not the state. Evelyn, from CulturEatz, hosts a monthly challenge exploring the foods of one country at a time. It’s a bit of a departure from my American Eats series, but one I can definitely get behind and have fun with! To be honest, I don’t know much about Georgia or its cuisine, but as I did some research to figure out what I wanted to make, I found lots of tasty looking food ideas that are influenced by Georgia’s geographic location being bordered by Turkey, Armenia, Azerbaijan, on the south and east, and the Ukraine on the north. I love, love, love Turkish food, so it’s no surprise that much of what I saw from Georgia looked delicious. But this homey, comforting dish of stewed chicken with tomatoes, garlic, and herbs looked right up my alley and easy to prepare for a simple weeknight meal. My family really enjoyed this dish and especially loved sopping up the wonderful cilantro and garlic infused tomato sauce with their garlic naan bread. It’s known as chakhokhbili and is supposedly pronounced chalk-hoke-bee-lee (but with a throat sound on the “hoke” part of the word). We might just stick with calling it Georgian chicken stew.
What is Chakhokhbili?
Chakhokhbili was actually traditionally made with pheasant but nowadays most people use chicken. I used bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs, which are pretty much my favorite cut of chicken, but you could use legs or cut up a whole chicken and use all the parts. The chicken is simmered with vegetables and tomatoes until tender. Then fresh cilantro and some minced garlic is stirred in to finish off the dish. Ideally, I would have used chopped fresh tomatoes to make my chakhokhbili but seeing as it’s March and tomato season is still a distant dream, I went with diced San Marzano tomatoes and dinner still turned out quite fantastic. We will definitely be having this again in the summer though when we can get garden-fresh tomatoes! The other key flavor players in Georgian chicken stew with tomatoes and herbs are red peppers, onions, and cilantro. I saw chakhokhbili recipe variations calling for a variety of herbs like dill, parsley, tarragon, and basil in addition to the cilantro (for the same total quantity of cilantro included in the recipe below), but cilantro seemed overwhelmingly to be the most popular choice. The amount of herbs also varied, but you can plan on about ½ cup of chopped cilantro and then add more by sprinkling it on top (which I like to do because I LOVE cilantro).
How to Make Georgian Chicken Stew with Tomatoes and Herbs
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