Persian Chicken

Persian Chicken, thick and rich

When my mum and dad were visiting earlier in the year, my mum was reading a magazine and I noticed a recipe for a Persian lamb dish with pomegranates. It looked delicious, but when I tried to find it to copy it before they left I couldn't it had gone.

I've tried Googling Persian recipes a few times since but not really come up with anything too appealing.

This week I was doing my online shopping with Ocado when I decided to have a browse through their "New" section. I came across a spice kit "Hare's Moor DIY Persian Chicken Kit". It was a bit pricey from Ocado at £3.50, but you can visit "Hare's Moor" directly, where the packs are a little cheaper, although you do need to take into account the £1.50 p&p. You cant really bulk buy as there are fresh ingredients inside each pack but you could order with friends.

You can however make your own without a kit, the Baharat Spice mix is readily available on Amazon and I'm sure many other stores too.

I couldn't fully follow the suggestion given with the spice kit as I didn't have all the ingredients to hand, but here's what I did do.

Persian Chicken

Gathering the ingredients

First get 450g of chicken thighs (you can use breast if you prefer) and chop them into bite sized pieces. Place them in a bowl and sprinkled them with a good teaspoon of Baharat spice mix. Make sure the chicken is all well coated and then put them to one side to absorb the flavours.

There's no chilli in the Bharat Spice mix so there's no need to worry about it if you don't like fiery
food. It does contain a healthy amount of black pepper though.

If you are vegetarian or vegan you can use some aubergine and sweet potato instead of chicken.

Adding the chilli, if that's what you want!

Finely chop 2 large onions and set them frying in a saucepan with some olive oil and an inch long piece of cassia bark for around 5-10 minutes. They should be soft and transparent. Then add 4 crushed cloves of garlic and some fresh ginger (about half an inch, grated). Fry for another couple of minutes. Keep stirring.

Sealing the chicken

For the next stage, add a little salt (season to your preference, you can adjust throughout the cooking), 2 chopped carrots and a tin of passata (you could use half a bottle, or some tinned chopped tomatoes or blend a tin of whole tomatoes). Next pierce 2 dried preserved limes (use the end of a sharp vegetable knife, but be careful, they can be quite hard) and add them to the pan. Add half a can of water (use the tomato can) and start to simmer the sauce.

It's at this point that you could add a tin of chick peas if you happened to have any and if you like them!

It's also the right time to add some fresh, chopped red chilli. As Lauren doesn't like chilli, I wait until 10 minutes before the end of the cooking time, take out a portion for her and then add the chilli.

Can you see the lime bobbing to the top?
Use a greaseproof paper lid to keep them down.

Bring the mixture to the boil and then simmer. You need to make sure the hard little limes are covered in juice. I used a piece of baking parchment on top of the sauce to hold them down.

While the sauce is simmering, heat some more olive oil in a pan and fry the chicken, season with salt and pepper as you cook. When the chicken is fully sealed and brown and spicy all over, add the pieces to the tomato sauce and stir well. Leave to simmer for about 30-40 minutes until the limes have softened and the chicken is tender and cooked. As you stir, squeeze the limes with the back of a spoon every now and again to help them release their juices.

Once you are happy that the chicken is cooked, you are ready to serve. If the sauce is too thick use a little boiling water to thin it. Stir in a teaspoon a sugar if needed to balance out the the lime and tomatoes. Test that the seasoning is right.

Remember to remove the bark and limes before serving, but if you like lime pickle, you might consider chopping up the limes and sprinkling them over the dish.

We had ours with plain white rice, but it would go equally well with couscous, pasta or even some crispy roast potatoes, or with flat breads and a salad or even a big bowl of greens.

The chicken was absolutely succulent and the rich, tomato sauce clung to it, leaving a pleasing spicy taste in your mouth and a slight after burn from the chilli. It was really fragrant, you could smell the lime in the sauce, sometimes sharp and sometimes a bitter smell, it definitely contributed to the flavour of the sauce, a tang which complimented the spices. There were clean plates all round so it was definitely a winner. I don't think it missed the chick peas, I think something like chopped dried apricots would have gone in well. Even a sprinkling of toasted almonds and some raisins may have worked.

Served with rice

It's definitely made me want to try more, I will be surfing the web looking for Persian cook books and restaurants!

Hope you give it a try and enjoy it too.