Persian · Main
Khoresh-e Fesenjan
- Intermediate
- 40 min
- roughly 4 of 4 for cost
Leads with an earthy, grounding base, toasted, nutty warmth throughout, leaving a faint perfume.
Ingredients
- 400 g shelled walnuts
- 1.2 kg bone-in skinless chicken thighs
- 150 g onion, finely chopped
- 45 ml sunflower oil
- 900 ml water
- 200 g pomegranate molasses
- 40 g caster sugar
- 0.5 g saffron threads, ground and steeped in 30 ml hot water
- 8 g salt
- 2 g black pepper
The skills inside
Dry-pan toasting: spices, seeds and nuts
Allergen screen
Found: nuts
Screened for: gluten, dairy, egg, nuts, peanuts, fish, shellfish, molluscs, soy, sesame, celery, mustard, lupin, alcohol. Not screened: sulphites.
Screened by keyword from the ingredient list, not reviewed by a person; check every label for what the list cannot show.
Method
- Toast the walnuts in a dry pan over medium heat until they smell of nut oil but are still pale, then grind them to a fine, oily paste.
- Brown the onion in the oil, colour the chicken on both sides in the same pan, season with the salt and pepper and lift the meat out.
- Stir the walnut paste into the water in a heavy pot and cook on the lowest heat, scraping the base every few minutes, until it goes from grey-beige to milk chocolate and a slick of oil rises, 45 to 60 minutes. 60 min
- Stir in the pomegranate molasses, sugar and saffron, return the chicken, and simmer uncovered until the sauce is mahogany and coats the back of a spoon, about 40 minutes. 40 min
- Taste and settle the balance with more molasses or sugar; it should read sour first and sweet second.
How to tell it is going right
This dish has no standard of its own yet. It is judged on the technique it exercises: checked at the pan, while there is still something to be done about it.
Dry-pan toasting: spices, seeds and nuts 70 recipes
- A single layer on dry metal with nothing added: no fat, and nothing else sharing the pan or the tray and competing for the heat.
- It is kept moving: shaken, stirred, or turned. Anything left still scorches on the face touching the metal while the rest of it is barely warm.
- It is judged by smell before sight: once it is fragrant there are seconds left, not minutes, and the nose reaches that point well before the colour does.
- It leaves the pan the instant it is done, onto a cold surface. A hot pan keeps toasting whatever stays in it, and carryover here is the difference between done and ruined.
- The colour is even and light rather than patchy, with nothing black at the edges: one scorched piece taints the whole quantity it is ground into.
Where it goes wrong It was left alone for a moment while something else was attended to. Dry heat has no margin: the pieces against the metal go from fragrant to acrid inside a minute, and the bitterness cannot be picked back out of a ground mixture.
At the Table
- The Pour
- Pinot Noir or Gamay
- Also Right
- Chenin Blanc
- From the Taps
- Bière de garde
- Zero-Proof
- Verbena iced tea
Chicken is wine’s most agreeable partner. Match the SAUCE, not the bird: cream to oak, tomato to Sangiovese’s acid, herbs to Loire whites.
Saved on this device and kept across visits: export from My Menu to move them.