Circassian Chicken (Çerkes Tavuğu)

Circassian chicken is one of the anchors of the Turkish table. Garlic, walnuts, bread and poached chicken — four plain things that turn into something far better than the sum of them.

Serve it as a meze or as a first course. It is best made a few hours ahead.

Serves 6 as a meze

Ingredients

2 chicken thighs and 1 piece of breast
Using both dark and white meat gives the dish more depth than either alone

1 onion
1 carrot
1 potato
5–6 black peppercorns
14 oz shelled walnuts
3 slices white sandwich bread
3 cloves garlic
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups warm chicken stock, from the poaching liquid
2 tablespoons walnut oil or olive oil
1 teaspoon sweet paprika

To garnish

Dill, parsley and pomegranate seeds

Method

Put the chicken in a pot with the onion, carrot and potato cut into quarters. Cover with cold water, add the salt and peppercorns, and cook over medium heat until the chicken is tender.

Lift the chicken out, remove the skin, and shred the meat by hand. The Circassians pull it into coarse strands rather than fine shreds, and that texture is part of the dish.

Strain the poaching liquid and keep it warm — this is the stock you will use.

Put the walnuts in a food processor and run it on high for several minutes, until they break down and turn to paste. Add warm stock a tablespoon at a time as you go, no more than 6 or 7 tablespoons total. Stop when the paste starts climbing the sides of the bowl.

Scrape the walnut paste into a large bowl.

Trim the crusts from the bread, grind it in the processor, and add it to the walnuts.

Crush the garlic and add it to the same bowl.

Now stir with a spoon while adding the warm stock a little at a time. Add the salt, paprika and oil. Keep going until the mixture has the consistency of a thick pudding — loose enough to fall from a spoon, thick enough to hold its shape on a plate.

Fold in the shredded chicken.

Spread on a serving plate, drizzle with walnut oil, and dust with paprika. Scatter over dill, parsley and pomegranate seeds.

Rest in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours before serving. The walnut and garlic need that time to come together — served immediately it tastes raw and separate.

Chef’s note

Do not over-blend the walnuts into oil. You want paste, not walnut butter. If the processor starts to warm up, stop and let it rest — walnuts release their oil with heat and the dish turns greasy.