Chicken(Or Lamb) in Pomegranate Sauce (Khoresht-E Fesenjan)
Submitted by gngrspot
Khoresht-e Fesenjan: chicken or lamb simmered in a rich, dark walnut and pomegranate sauce with saffron, cinnamon, and nutmeg. A beloved Persian stew served with rice.
YIELD
4 servingsPREP
30 minCOOK
45 minREADY
75 minFesenjan is the crown jewel of Persian cooking, and once you’ve tasted that dark, glossy walnut-pomegranate sauce, nothing else quite compares.
Chicken pieces brown in butter with onions, then simmer until tender enough to pull from the bone. Meanwhile, ground walnuts, pomegranate syrup, and water cook down into a thick, sweet-sour sauce that’s somewhere between a mole and a fruit compote. The boned chicken goes back in with saffron, cinnamon, nutmeg, and lemon juice for another hour of gentle simmering until everything melts into one deeply layered stew.
Serve it over steamed basmati rice and let that sauce pool into every grain. This is Persian holiday cooking at its finest.
Chef Tips
- Finely grind the walnuts, but don’t turn them into paste. You want a thick, slightly textured sauce, not a nut butter.
- Pomegranate syrup (also labeled pomegranate molasses) is the key ingredient. Sour cranberry juice concentrate works in a pinch but won’t give you the same deep complexity.
- Balance the sauce at the end. It should be sweet-sour. Add sugar if it’s too tart, more pomegranate syrup if it’s too sweet. This step is what separates good fesenjan from great.
- The sauce should be thick enough to coat the chicken generously. If it’s thin, simmer uncovered for the last 15 minutes to reduce it.
Ingredients
Directions
Saut? the onions in 2 tablespoon of the butter until golden brown.
Remove from the pan.
Add 3 more tablespoon of butter and saut? the chicken pieces until light brown.
Add the bouillon and saut?ed onions. cover and simmer gently for 30 minutes.
Cook and bone.
Prepare the sauce by stirring the water into the ground walnuts.
Stir in the pomegranate syrup and sugar, and simmer gently over a low heat for 10 to 15 minutes.
Combine the cooked, boned chicken and most of its drippings with the walnut sauce; add the seasonings and the lemon juice; cover and simmer gently for another hour.
Adjust the seasonings by adding a little sugar if too sour, or more pomegranate syrup if too sweet.
The chicken pieces should be coated with a rich, dark, sweet-sour sauce; there should be plenty of thick sauce.
Serve with rice.
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