Circassian Chicken Recipes

Steps:

• Simmer the large onion, carrots, peppercorns, salt, bay leaves and parsley in 1 1/2 quarts of water for 20 minutes. Add the chicken, and continue simmering for 20 minutes longer, just until the chicken is done. Cool the chicken in the broth.
• Meanwhile, heat the walnut oil over very low heat, stirring in 1 teaspoon of the paprika. Set aside in a warm place.
• Soak the bread in a little water, and squeeze it dry.
• Grind the walnuts in a food processor or blender until fine. Spoon into a large bowl, and set aside.
• When chicken is cool enough to handle, remove from broth; discard skin and bones, and tear meat into bite-size pieces and set aside. Strain the chicken stock, and reserve.
• Crumble the bread into the walnuts. Stir in garlic, 1/2 cup minced onion, 1 tablespoon paprika, cayenne and 2 cups of reserved stock. Mix and process in batches to make smooth paste, using more stock as needed to make a thick sauce of pouring consistency. Season with salt.
• Mix half the sauce with the chicken pieces. Arrange the mixture on a serving platter, and pour the remaining sauce over it. Drizzle with hot walnut-paprika oil. Serve cold or at room temperature.

Steps:

• Bring the chicken stock to a simmer and add the chicken breasts. Add some water if there is not enough liquid to cover the meat. Simmer gently for 10 minutes, then turn off the heat.
• Meanwhile, heat the olive or walnut oil in a small pot over low heat and add the paprika. Stir well to combine. Heat until you can smell the aroma of the paprika, then turn off the heat.
• Tear the bread into chunks and put into a bowl. Ladle out about a cup or two of the chicken broth and pour it over the bread.
• Set aside ½ cup of walnuts and put in a bowl with the green onions and 1 tablespoon of the parsley.
• Put the rest of the walnuts into a food processor with the garlic, the cayenne, about a teaspoon of salt, the rest of the parsley and the soaked bread. Buzz to make a thick, relatively chunky paste. If it needs a bit more chicken broth to loosen up, add some a tablespoon at a time.
• Stir the paprika-oil, then pour it into the food processor and buzz to combine. Taste the mixture to see if it needs salt.
• Pull the skin off the chicken breasts and tear the meat into shreds. Put it in the bowl with the unchopped walnuts, green onions and such.
• Add the walnut-paprika paste from the food processor to the bowl and stir gently to combine everything thoroughly. Add black pepper and lemon juice to taste and stir one more time to combine.

Steps:

• Put the chicken, vegetables, bayleaf, thyme and salt in a pot, add the water.
• Bring to a boil and then simmer for about 15 minutes.
• Remove and strain the chicken. Let it cool.
• Keep the stock and one of the onions.
• Shred the chicken into 2" strips.
• In a pot, simmer the stock down to 2 cups.
• In a blender, grind the walnuts till they are finely chopped.
• Remove the crusts of the bread. Soak them first and then squeeze them dry.
• Add the bread, onion, garlic, lemon juice, paprika, salt& pepper into the blender and mix together.
• Slowly add in the stock and puree until smooth. (if it's too thick add a little milk).
• Mix shredded chicken and hald of the walnut sauce and put in serving dish.
• Spread the rest of the sauce over it.
• Heat olive oil and paprika over medium heat until the oil turns into red. Drizzle it over chicken.
• Sprinkle with minced parsley.
• Enjoy!