yogurt-braised chicken

07Feb08

The constraints of cooking non-Korean food here no longer faze me. Which is to say: when I decided to cook dinner for my host family and base the entire meal around the box of taboule mix I brought from America, I simply substituted. Cinnamon went in for the cardamom. Korean red pepper stood in for cayenne. When a certain person left the cumin (a gift from America) AT THE ARCADE on the way over to my apartment, ginger and more cinnamon served as pinch hitters. When Oma (my Korean host mom) accidentally spilled half the raisin paste that was supposed to add oomph to the sauce, well, let’s just say that the “1/3-1/2 cup lemon juice” turned out to be more like “all the juice in all the lemons we have.”

To be fair, not all the substitutions were completely random; yes, the fact that cinnamon and cardamom both start with C contributed a little bit to my decision, but the original recipe supposedly originated from Morocco, and channeling the flavors of a b’steeya seemed like as logical an option as any other. And the raisin paste was supposed to add tartness and thickness to the sauce, which the lemon juice most certainly did, with the added benefit of not looking like some sort of bodily discharge.

In the end, our recipe bore little resemblance to the one with which we started. But no matter; by some stroke of luck, the dish proved a hit with my host family, my friend Scooter (the loser of the cumin), and myself. The sauce has a tamarind-like tang without an overpowering raisin flavor, the cinnamon (especially in the absence of sugar) balances the tart yogurt nicely, and the whole thing goes excellently over sticky rice, or, if you live in my house, whatever the rice is that’s left in the cooker. (I think this one had red beans.) We paired it with the taboule – I would have liked to have made homemade taboule, of course, but if I lived in a country that gave me easy access to fresh herbs and bulgur, well, let’s just say that my eating habits probably wouldn’t involve as much fried pork as they do – and a carrot salad loosely based off a recipe from Mark Bittman’s How To Cook Everything, one of my favorite references. We used the delicious fresh tangerines that grow on Jeju, but any oranges will do. Scooter also oversalted the salad before I could stop him, so we added more juice and another carrot, which resulted in a tasty if less than ideal salad. A little Dijon in it is also nice. These dishes don’t really belong to any particular country or culture anymore, but given the expatriate nature of their chefs, such a heritage seems rather fitting.

Recipe notes: 5 tablespoons of butter is a bit excessive, unless you like orange pools of grease on top of your chicken. While the onion wasn’t present in the original recipe, its contribution to ours proved important enough that I would recommend using it unless you don’t have it, in which case: don’t.

yogurt-braised chicken with cashews and raisins

(Bon Appetit, October 2007)

Ingredients

1 3-pound best-of-fryer chicken (8 pieces)
1 1/2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons coarse kosher salt
4 teaspoons ground cumin, divided
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cardamom, divided
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
2 1/2 cups raisins (about 12 ounces), divided
1 1/2 cups hot water

4 cups plain yogurt
2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

5 tablespoons Clarified Butter
1 cup raw cashews (about 5 ounces)
10 whole cloves

1/3 to 1/2 cup fresh lemon juice

Preparation

Place chicken, skin side up, on rimmed baking sheet. Mix 1 1/2 tablespoons salt, 3 teaspoons cumin, 1 teaspoon cardamom, and cayenne in small bowl. Sprinkle chicken generously on all sides with spice mix. Let stand 2 hours.

Combine 1 cup raisins and 1 1/2 cups hot water in medium bowl. Cover; soak until raisins are soft, at least 30 minutes and up to 1 hour. Drain, reserving soaking liquid. Blend raisins and 3 tablespoons reserved soaking liquid in mini processor, adding more soaking liquid, if needed, to make smooth paste.

Place yogurt in medium bowl; whisk 1 minute to lighten. Add black pepper, cinnamon, remaining 2 teaspoons salt, 1 teaspoon cumin, and 1/2 teaspoon cardamom and whisk to blend.

Heat butter in large nonstick skillet over high heat. Add chicken, skin side down, and sauté until brown, about 6 minutes per side. Add remaining 1 1/2 cups raisins, cashews, and cloves. Slowly stir in yogurt mixture. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer until chicken is cooked through, about 12 minutes.

Transfer chicken to platter. Whisk raisin paste and 1/3 cup lemon juice into sauce. Simmer to blend, whisking constantly, about 4 minutes. Season with salt, pepper, and more lemon juice, if desired. Spoon over chicken.

My version:

yogurt-braised chicken with cashews and raisins, v.2

3 pounds of chicken, any combination of pieces
1 1/2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons coarse kosher salt
4 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon ginger
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
2 cups raisins (about 12 ounces), divided
1 1/2 cups hot water
4 cups plain yogurt
2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon ginger
3 tablespoons butter
1 onion, chopped
1 cup raw cashews (about 5 ounces)

1/3 to 1/2 cup fresh lemon juice

Preparation

Place chicken, skin side up, on rimmed baking sheet. Mix 1 1/2 tablespoons salt, cinnamon, and 1 teaspoon ginger in small bowl. Pat chicken generously on all sides with spice mix. Let stand 1-2 hours.

Combine 1/2 cup raisins and 3/4 cup hot water in medium bowl. Cover; soak until raisins are soft, at least 30 minutes and up to 1 hour. Drain, reserving soaking liquid. Blend raisins and 1 1/2 tablespoons reserved soaking liquid in mini processor, adding more soaking liquid, if needed, to make smooth paste.

Place yogurt in medium bowl; whisk 1 minute to lighten. Add black pepper, ginger, and remaining 2 teaspoons salt and whisk to blend.

Heat butter in large nonstick skillet over high heat. Add onions and saute until soft. Add chicken, skin side down, and sauté until brown, about 6 minutes per side. Add remaining 1 1/2 cups raisins, cashews, and cloves. Slowly stir in yogurt mixture. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer until chicken is cooked through, about 12 minutes.

carrot salad

5-6 carrots, peeled and shredded
1-2 lemons
1-2 oranges
cumin and ginger to taste
salt

Add juice of one lemon and one orange to carrots; toss and sample. Add more of each juice to taste. Shake a little cumin and grate a little ginger (or shake some dried if you don’t have any fresh) into the salad and toss again. Add a very little bit of salt, taste, and add more if necessary. Leaving this to sit too long will cause juices, etc. to leach out of the carrots, which has no great effect on the taste but does impact presentation.