Shkmeruli: Georgian Chicken in Garlic Cream
TURKISH · TURKEY

Shkmeruli: Georgian Chicken in Garlic Cream

შქმერულიMain

A whole chicken seared hard in a clay pan, then drowned in raw-garlic milk cream that thickens into a fierce, punchy sauce. It is a garlic lover's dish and it does not apologise for it.

Total
60 min
Heat
1/5
Serves
4

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Flavour profile

Heat
Funk
Acid
Richness
Umami
  • Garlicky
  • Rich
  • Savoury

The real deal

Region
Racha, in the Georgian highlands, traditionally cooked in a ketsi clay pan.
Technique
The chicken is pressed flat and fried skin-side down in an uncovered pan until the skin crisps, then the garlic milk cream is poured in and simmered down into a thick sauce.
We kept
A whole flattened chicken, a huge amount of raw garlic, milk and butter. We did not soften the garlic: shkmeruli is meant to be bracing.

Ingredients

4 Serves

chicken

  • 1 · about 1.5 cm to 2 cm kg, spatchcocked
  • 2 tsp
  • 2 tbsp
  • 30 g

cream

  • 10 cloves · crushed to a paste
  • 200 ml
  • 200 ml · or cooking cream
  • ½ tsp
  • 3 · optional · a few sprigs

finish

  • 1 bunch · torn
  • 60 g · optional · toasted, roughly broken

Method

  1. Put breast-side down and cut along both sides of the backbone with kitchen shears. Pull it out, open the bird up, and press hard on the breastbone with the heel of your hand until you hear it crack and the chicken lies flat. Pat the chicken completely dry with kitchen paper, then season both sides generously with 2 tsp . Dry skin is crisp skin: any moisture left on it will steam instead of fry.

    Save the backbone for stock. A flat bird cooks evenly and the skin crisps whole.

  2. Set a wide, heavy-bottomed frying pan or clay ketsi over medium heat and let it come up properly, about 3 min. Add 2 tbsp and swirl it across the base. Crush 10 cloves with a pinch of into a smooth paste, using a pestle and mortar or the flat of a knife. Do not grate it and do not cook it yet: that raw sting is the whole point of shkmeruli.

  3. Lay the chicken in the pan skin-side down. Press it flat against the metal with a spatula or a second pan for the first 1 min, then leave it alone. Let the skin go deep gold and crackling, 8 min to 10 min, until it releases from the pan by itself and sounds crisp when you tap it.

    If the skin starts catching before it colours, drop the heat a notch. Crowding the pan is the other way to get pale, soggy skin.

  4. Turn the chicken over and slide 30 g into the pan around it. Cook the flesh side until the meat is just cooked through at the thickest part of the thigh, about 7 min.

  5. While the chicken finishes, whisk 200 ml with 200 ml , the garlic paste and ½ tsp until smooth.

  6. Tip the chicken back to skin-side up and pour the garlic cream around it, scraping up every browned bit from the base of the pan. Tuck in if you have it.

  7. Simmer uncovered, basting the chicken with the sauce every few minutes, until the cream thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon and the garlic has mellowed just a little, 8 min to 10 min. Do not let it boil hard or the cream will split.

    If the sauce tightens too far, loosen it with a splash of milk rather than water; water makes it grainy.

  8. Take the pan off the heat, scatter over the torn and the broken if using, and bring the whole pan to the table. Serve with bread or rice to mop up the garlic cream.

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