Composition / ingredients
Step-by-step cooking
Step 1:
How to make chkmeruli in Georgian? Prepare all the necessary ingredients. It is advisable to buy a chilled chicken, since it is difficult to judge the freshness and quality of meat from a frozen carcass. It should be light pink in color, with a neutral smell. In the classic recipe, coriander is added. Coriander is rarely on sale here, so I take parsley instead.
Step 2:
If the chicken is frozen, defrost it in advance. Then rinse under running water, remove the insides and feathers, if any. Turn the carcass over on its back and cut it first in the middle of the chest, without affecting the back. Then lightly beat off with a hammer so that the pieces become more even. Cut the back into 2 halves. And then each into 3-4 parts. I made chkmeruli from half a chicken.
Step 3:
Wipe each piece with paper towels so that there are fewer splashes from moisture when frying. Rub salt and spices on all sides.
Step 4:
Then brush the chicken with a small amount of vegetable oil and leave to marinate for at least 10 minutes.
Step 5:
For frying, preheat the frying pan without oil. Turn on medium or above-average heat. Lay out the chicken pieces and fry under a press for 15 minutes until golden brown on both sides. As a press, you can, like me, use a suitable-sized pot of water. I usually put a sheet of parchment paper under the pan to keep the bottom clean.
Step 6:
While the chicken is frying, turn on the oven to warm up to 180 degrees and prepare the sauce. Peel and rinse the garlic. Remove the tough stems and flaccid leaves from the greens, rinse and dry. Chop the garlic and cilantro with a knife.
Step 7:
In a deep container, mix cream, garlic and herbs. You can add a little salt and hops-suneli.
Step 8:
Place the toasted pieces in a baking dish with high walls. I have a ceramic mold with a size of 25x20 cm.
Step 9:
Pour the sauce over the chicken so that it is covered by more than half. If there is less sauce, you can add a little cold boiled water. Bake on the middle shelf of a preheated 180 degree oven for about 35 minutes. Determine the exact time and temperature by your oven.
Chkmeruli is made both for a holiday and for an ordinary family dinner. This is a very tasty Georgian dish, in which the ingredients are harmoniously combined. As a rule, a whole chicken is taken for cooking, but you can also take individual parts, for example, a ham.
About how to defrost frozen chicken, read in this article about the proper defrosting of products .
Use oil with a high smoking temperature for frying! Any oils are useful only until a certain temperature is reached - the point of smoking, at which the oil begins to burn and toxic substances, including carcinogens, are formed in it.
Unrefined oils, with rare exceptions, have a low smoking point. There are a lot of unfiltered organic particles in them, which quickly begin to burn.
Refined oils are more resistant to heating, and their smoking point is higher. If you are going to cook food in the oven, on a frying pan or grill, make sure that you use oil with a high smoking point. The most common of the oils with a high smoking point: refined varieties of sunflower, olive and grape.
Keep in mind that everyone's ovens are different. The temperature and cooking time may differ from those specified in the recipe. To make any baked dish successful, use useful information about the features of ovens !
Caloric content of the products possible in the composition of the dish
- Category I chicken - 238 kcal/100g
- Category II chicken - 159 kcal/100g
- Chicken, flesh without skin - 241 kcal/100g
- Chickens - 140 kcal/100g
- Buttermilk - 36 kcal/100g
- Cream of 20% fat content - 300 kcal/100g
- Cream of 10% fat content - 120 kcal/100g
- Cream - 300 kcal/100g
- Garlic - 143 kcal/100g
- Vegetable oil - 873 kcal/100g
- Hop-suneli - 417 kcal/100g
- Salt - 0 kcal/100g
- Coriander greens - 25 kcal/100g
