Circassian Chicken

Circassian chicken made its way into Turkish cuisine during the Ottoman period when the Ottoman Empire controlled much of the region now known as the Caucasus. Today this area borders modern Turkey in the northeast. Circassian girls whose beauty were famous worldwide would cook this for their suiters and if the dish was as beautiful as the girl then the marriage would take place. The name comes from the resemblance of the pale complexions of the Circassian beauties to the colour of the dish.
Circassian chicken is a classic, flavorful, fancy and luscious Turkish dish mostly cooked for special occasions like the New Year, Weddings, Bayrams, Holidays, Open buffets or for special guests when entertaining at home. Itis always served cold.
 

Ingredients:

• 1 whole chicken
• 1 large onion, peeled, quartered
• 1 coarsely chopped carrot
• some salt
• 4-5 peppercorns

The sauce:

• 1 small onion
• 4 slices of stale bread
• 3 cups walnuts
• 2 cups chicken stock   
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 3  cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 teaspoon ground coriander
• 2 tablespoon olive oil

• The Garnish:  

• 2 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil/walnut oil
• 1 teaspoon  paprika flakes
• 10 shelled whole walnuts

How To:

Boil the chicken, the peeled and quartered onions, chopped carrots, peppercorns and salt in 2 quarts of water. Cook just until the chicken is done. Set aside and cool the chicken in its broth.
When the chicken is cold enough to handle discard the skin and bones and cut the meat into bite-size pieces.

Save 2 cups of the chicken stock. Grind the walnuts in a food processor. Crumble the bread, place it on a tray and bake for 5-6 minutes until very dry. Grate onion finely and squeze and keep the juice, discard the residue. Crush garlic cloves.

In a large bowl combine walnuts, bread crumbs, chicken stock, paprika, black pepper, garlic, coriander, olive oil and juice of the onion. Stir well until you get a smooth paste. Add more stock  to make the sauce of pouring consistancy..

Mix half of the sauce with the chicken pieces, transfer it onto a serving dish and pour rest of the sauce over it. Garnish with whole walnuts. Heat the extra virgin olive oil/walnut oil and add the paprika flakes, cook gently for 1 minute or two. Drizzle with hot olive oil  /walnut-paprika oil.

Enjoy!

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