Persian Pomegranate Chicken à la Niccolò
This is a 16th-century recipe. A friend researched it because we were reading Dorothy Dunnett's Niccolò Rising novels (set in that time period) and we were curious about what the characters were eating. See the Persian rice recipe, which really, you must serve with the chicken.
This is a 16th-century recipe. A friend researched it because we were reading Dorothy Dunnett's Niccolò Rising novels (set in that time period) and we were curious about what the characters were eating. See the Persian rice recipe, which really, you must serve with the chicken.
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 2 cups water
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 2 tablespoons parsley
- 4 chicken breasts (with bone and skin)
- 1 celery rib
- 2 teaspoons thyme
- 1 tablespoon peppercorn cracked
- 5 whole juniper berries mashed
- 3 cups walnuts ground fine
- 2 lemon juice
- 1 cup pomegranate juice (i use a brand called p.o.m.)
- 5 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1 1/2 large onions finely diced
- 2 teaspoons ground cardamom
- Carbohydrate 43.9353946666667 g
- Cholesterol 205.688316666667 mg
- Fat 61.9684806666667 g
- Fiber 6.08856656120022 g
- Protein 73.5177266666667 g
- Saturated Fat 16.1540614833333 g
- Serving Size 1 1 (570g)
- Sodium 929.344416666667 mg
- Sugar 37.8468281054665 g
- Trans Fat 4.09945035000002 g
- Calories 999 calories
Step-by-step
- Wash 4 chicken breasts (with bones and skin) and put them in a good-sized pot. Add celery rib, thyme, parsley sprigs, bay leaf, cracked peppercorns, and juniper berries.
- Barely cover the breasts with cold water, cover the pot, and bring to a gentle simmer (the surface of the water shakes and only a few bubbles break). Hold it there for 20 minutes; turn off the heat; let the breasts rest in the hot water for 10 minutes.
- Transfer chicken to a strainer. Let it rest until cool enough to handle and then cut or pull the meat into bite-sized pieces. Use the skin, bones, and broth to make stock for some other dish.
- Grind six or so handfuls of walnuts fine in a food processor to produce three cups. You want to end up with about three cups.
- Heat 5T unsalted butter in a large, heavy saucepan, and add onions, chopped fine. Cook onions until they are golden, 8 minutes or so. Add ground walnuts and stir constantly (very important) for about five minutes. They will stick if you don't stir.
- Add the lemon juice, salt, cinnamon, sugar, pomegranate juice, cardamom and two cups water. Cover pot and let mixture simmer for up to 40 minutes.
- Five minutes before you're ready to serve, add the chicken. Keep the heat low so it doesn't toughen up and cook it only until everything is heated through. Turn off the heat and let it rest if you must. It will stay hot for quite a while.
The Walnut Paste Foundation
Many cooks add ground walnuts directly to liquids without prior fat-cooking, resulting in a raw flavor and poor emulsification. Fine-grinding three cups of nuts in a food processor breaks the cell walls to release natural oils. Cooking those nuts in five tablespoons of unsalted butter for five minutes toasts the solids before the pomegranate juice enters the pan. Stir constantly during this stage because high oil content causes rapid scorching. The resulting paste acts as the primary thickener for the sauce, absorbing both the citrus and fruit juices.
Poaching Temperature Control
Boiling bone-in chicken breasts causes the muscle fibers to seize and toughen permanently. Maintain a gentle simmer where the water surface merely shakes and occasional bubbles break. Holding the meat at this threshold for twenty minutes ensures even interior cooking without moisture loss. Resting the pieces in the hot liquid for an additional ten minutes finishes the process gently. Pulling the skin and bones away yields clean meat pieces while preserving valuable aromatics like juniper berries and cracked peppercorns in the poaching broth.
Juice Ratios and Thermal Management
Balancing one cup of tart pomegranate juice requires precisely one-third cup of sugar to temper the acidity. Lemon juice provides a secondary sharpness that cuts through the heavy fat content of the ground walnuts. Simmer this combination covered for forty minutes to concentrate the flavors. Add the cooked chicken during the final five minutes of heating. Keeping the burner on low prevents the poultry from tightening up before serving.
