Fesenjan with Chicken

Fesenjan

 

Fesenjan is a decadent rich sauce made with walnuts and pomegranate paste.  In some parts of Iran it’s made very sweet, but in the North of Iran, where I am from, it’s made sweet and sour.  I used to think that make Fesenjan was too difficult to even try, but now that I know how easy it is to make, I make it pretty often.  The trick to this dish is really just the quality of your ingredients.  If you like your Fesenjan sweet and sour, it’s important to find a nice sour pomegranate paste.  If you like your Fesenjan sweet, than anything will do.

Unfortunately, I learned this the old fashioned way so I don’t have any measurements to give.  It’s all a matter of taste, texture and sight.  Trust me, this is as irritating for me as it is for you.

Ingredients:

Walnuts

Pomegranate Paste

Sugar

Chicken

That’s it.  Really.  Funny, huh?

You start by taking your walnuts, about half a large bag or so and sticking them in your blender or food processor.  The goal is to get the nuts so fine that it practically forms a paste.  I’m horrible at this so my nuts are pretty fine but not quite as fine as restaurant quality (although I have a trick to get them closer later).  Once you have your nuts ready, you put them in your nice heavy saucepan.  I like to toast them just a little before adding water, but that’s not necessary.  Add water, enough to fully cover the nuts and water them down.  You can always add more water later as necessary, so don’t worry about how much you pour now too much.  The key here is patience, once the water comes to a gentle boil, cover and let simmer, stirring gently occasionally.  Over time, the mixture will begin to turn brown and the nuts natural oils will collect at the top of the mixture (this may take some time so this is not a dish to make if you’re in a hurry).  Once it reaches this point, you can start playing with the flavorings.  Add in pomegranate paste and sugar in parts until you reach your preferred flavor.  I used about half a cup of pomegranate paste and about half a cup of sugar.  Keep tasting as your going to make sure you get the exact flavor you desire.  If the mixture is tasting grainy at all, that is how you know you need to add more water.  But before you do so, here is my little trick.  I like to take the mixture at this point and stick it back in the blender.  Because I can’t seem to get my nuts as fine as I like, I find that putting the almost finished mixture in the blender one last time helps.  Meanwhile, prepare your chicken however you like.  Because the chicken is smothered in sauce, you can boil it, cook it in a slow cooker, or pan cook it.  There’s not need to brown the chicken.  Place the cooked chicken into your saucepan, pour in the mixture, add more water if necessary.  Bring heat down to low and let the chicken sit in the mixture and soak it up a little while.

Serve over rice.  Onions are a nice accompaniment to Fesenjan because it gives a little spicy bite to a sweet entree.

This dish isn’t complicated, but it does take time to simmer and develop the rich flavors that make it so popular among Persians and their friends.

Enjoy!