To cook satsivi in the kitchen, you need to spend 2 hours, at least another 6 hours will be needed to infuse satsivi.
How to cook satsivi
Products
Whole chilled or frozen turkey or chicken – 2-2,5 kilograms
Walnut kernels – half a kilo
Onions – 4 large heads
Water or broth – half a glass
Garlic – 1 head (12-15 teeth)
Grape vinegar – 1 tablespoon
Adjika classic – 2 tablespoons
Ground coriander – 1 teaspoon
Utskho-suneli – 1 teaspoon
Saffron or turmeric – 1 teaspoon
Salt – 2 level tablespoons
Poultry processing
1. Defrost chicken or turkey, if frozen.
2. Gut and rinse the bird.
3. Divide the poultry into portions.
4. Optionally, either boil the turkey or chicken in a saucepan, bake the poultry in a baking bag (at 180 degrees for 40 minutes), or simmer (in a skillet under a lid over low heat for 45 minutes) in a skillet.
Making satsivi sauce
1. Chop the walnuts and remove along with the partitions, measure 3 tablespoons for the base of the sauce.
2. Peel the onions and chop finely.
3. In a saucepan, melt the chicken or turkey fat (if the poultry was cooked; otherwise, add oil) and fry the onion on it.
4. Separate and peel the head of garlic.
5. Mix the edible part of the nuts, adjika and garlic in a bowl, then pass together through the finest mesh of a meat grinder or chop with a blender.
6. Put the mass on cheesecloth, wrap in it and squeeze – so that liquid flows out of the mass, for which it is necessary to prepare a separate container.
7. Return the mass to the meat grinder and grind three times again, and repeat the juice extraction procedure again.
8. Boil 1 liter of water, half a glass of which pour into the onion along with the nut mass, and mix until smooth.
7. Stir the resulting sauce with the remaining walnuts.
8. Slowly pour in the remaining boiling water, stirring constantly.
9. Pour salt and all dry spices into the sauce, add adjika and stir.
10. Boil the sauce after boiling again for 10 minutes.
Cooking and serving dishes
1. Put chicken pieces into the resulting sauce – it is desirable that the satsivi are completely in the sauce.
2. Cook the poultry in the sauce for 1 minute over low heat.
3. Infuse satsivi for 6 hours. The desired infusion time for satsivi is 12 hours.
4. Serve satsivi with prepared peanut butter.
Delicious facts
– The classic satsivi uses chicken, but the sauce is much more important and can be used with turkey. Poultry that has not been frozen is most suitable – fresh or chilled.
– When choosing walnuts, it is important to consider the need for walnut juice. As a rule, fresh walnuts can be bought in the markets, after asking the seller to chop the walnut for testing.
– Poultry parts can be baked in the oven in a baking bag, or stewed in a skillet with water under the lid. When cooking poultry, it is important that the meat is not covered with a crust, as this will interfere with the sauce.
– To prepare the satsivi, you need a 5 liter saucepan to hold all the food in it.
– You can grind the nuts and mix them with the satsivi products either in a coffee grinder, or in a meat grinder, or in a blender. As a last resort, you can crush it in a mortar.
– To prepare the sauce, use water, pomegranate juice or light chicken or turkey broth.
– Ground coriander in the satsivi recipe is allowed to replace cilantro, and adjika with hot pepper.
– When serving, satsivi can be sprinkled with sprigs of herbs and pomegranate seeds.
– Satsivi is traditionally served cold with hominy as a side dish. Otherwise, satsivi is served with bread or lavash, dipping their pieces in a peanut sauce; with vegetable salads.
– Freshly squeezed walnut oil can be replaced with store-bought oil.
– Sometimes a tablespoon of boiled grape vinegar is added to the satsivi sauce, or it is replaced with a teaspoon of citric acid. This is done so that the satsivi sauce does not darken and lose its appetizing appearance.
– To give satsivi an even more spicy flavor, you can add cloves, fried onions, red pepper, cilantro seeds.
– Please note that satsivi will become very thick when cooled. That is why it is served with peanut butter, which is used to dilute satsivi.
– The calorie content of chicken satsivi is 320 kcal, from turkey – 290 kcal.
– The cost of products for making chicken satsivi – from 750 rubles, from turkey – from 1000 rubles. (on average in Moscow as of June 2020).
– It is better to remove large poultry bones after initial processing, because cold bones are more difficult to handle.
– In the classic recipe, the poultry pieces are first brought to half-cooked level, and then cooked in satsivi sauce.