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Chicken Tabaka Niortskali with Paprika Hasselbacks

Traditional Georgian recipe with Spatchcocked chicken cooked in butter in a hot cast iron pan under "a brick". Served with Cream Niortskali - a twist on Georgian garlic/coriander sauce and some hasselback style paprika'd baked potatoes.
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Prep Time 2 hours
Cook Time 2 hours
Marinade Time 8 hours
Course Main Course
Cuisine European, Georgian

Equipment

  • Kamado Joe Classic
  • Cast Iron Skillet
  • Heavy Weight

Ingredients
  

Khmeli Suneli Spice Mix

  • 2 tsp fenugreek seeds
  • 4 bay leaves
  • 1 tsp chili powder
  • 2 tbsp dried parsley
  • 2 tsp dried marjoram
  • 2 tsp dried tarragon
  • 1 tsp ground coriander
  • 2 tsp dried dill
  • ½ tsp pepper
  • 2 tsp salt

Chicken Tabaka

  • 1 medium whole, fresh chicken (or ideally, two small cornish hens)
  • 2 whole lemons juice only - about ⅔ cup
  • 4-6 cloves garlic
  • 6 tbsp the khmeli suneli mix (all of what was made above !)
  • 1 tbsp smoked paprika
  • 1 cup olive oil
  • 2 sticks butter for cooking the chicken in the skillet

Paprika Hasselback Potatoes

  • 4 large white baking potatoes
  • 6 tbsp olive oil (or more, to baste)
  • 1 tbsp your favourite salt/heat based rub or spice mix Almost anything goes here !
  • 4 slices cheddar cheese or favourite alternative
  • 1 sprinkle paprika
  • 1 sprinkle fresh coriander (aka cilantro in USA !)

Niortskali Sauce

  • 1½ cups chicken stock
  • 2 tsp fine salt
  • 6-8 cloves garlic
  • 1½ tsp paprika
  • ½-¾ bunch cilantro
  • ½ cup heavy (double) cream

Instructions
 

Khmeli Suneli

  • Add the fenugreek seeds and bay leaves to a grinder and blitz until you have a fine yellow powder.
  • Mix the powder with everything else in a bowl. Combine really well and store in a spice jar for up to three months.

Chicken Tabaka Preparation

  • Juice the lemons, crush the garlic cloves and combine in a jug (about 2 pint)
  • Add the khmeli suneli mix, the paprika and oil and stir well. Set aside.
  • Take the chicken out of the packaging (or pluck the feathers if it's really fresh !). Wash the surface, the inside and pat dry.
  • Identify the BACK of the chicken (the side opposite the plump breasts !). Place the chicken so the back of the chicken is facing up. Then locate the backbone that goes straight down the centre.
  • Using boning shears (ideally) or heavy kitchen scissors start cutting through the skin, flesh and thin ribs on either side of the backbone. Go from one end to the other. Repeat on the other side of the backbone. You're cutting the long, thin backbone out of the chicken to open it up. This is called "spatchcocking" the chicken.
  • Open up the chicken and spend a little time cutting/trimming out the bones from the inside of the chicken. You'll find rib bones and some other stuff in there. Don't cut too much into the breast meat, but try to do a good job of trimming the small, sharp bones out from the chicken.
  • Once you're happy, turn the chicken over so its open side is face down. Flatten the chicken out. Use your fists to beat the chicken into a flatter profile. You're trying to get this as flat as it'll go.
  • Trim off the wing tips with boning shears or a cleaver.
  • Grab a large zip-loc bag (or similar) that will hold the chicken. Put the chicken in, and pour in the set-aside marinade. Mush it around for a bit until everything is covered and leave for a few hours or overnight if you can, in the fridge.
  • Get the Kamado up to a temperature of 375°F or so. Set it up for indirect cooking.

Hasselback Potatoes

  • Wash and pat dry your baking potatoes.
  • Take two wooden spoons with about a ¼-½in diameter stem and place parallel to each other. Place a baking potato between them, so they form rails along the potato.
  • With a sharp knife, cut lines perpendicular to the spoons all the way into the potato until you reach the level of the spoons so you leave the potato totally joined up at the bottom. The lines should be quite close together - 2mm or so (see how multi-cultural I am with my effortless inch to metric usage ?!). Repeat with all four potatoes. Place the potatoes in a cast iron skillet or heavy pan.
  • In a jug mix together your olive oil and rub. Pour the mixture over the potatoes. Fan the potatoes out as you're pouring so that the mix goes into the potato cuts. Cover the skillet with some foil.
  • Potatoes will take the longest, so put the covered skillet in the pre-heated Kamado and bake for an hour or two (standard baked potato timings !) depending on how crispy you like the outside of the potatoes.
  • This is a good time to prep the ingredients for the Niortskali sauce. Crush the garlic cloves and salt in a pestle and mortar and finely chop the coriander/cilantro and set aside.

Cooking the chicken

  • The chicken will take about an hour to cook. The potatoes might take two hours, so consider your timings carefully here. The chicken can continue to marinade in the fridge until ready.
  • When you're an hour away then reset the Kamado for direct cooking, place the butter in the skillet and put it in the Kamado until sizzling.
  • Take the chicken out of the marinade bag and put into the sizzling butter. Pour the remaining marinade over the chicken.
  • Put a heavy "something" on the chicken. I used a heavy "baking steel" but people have used bricks wrapped in foil, skillets etc. I actually put a Cast Iron grate in between the chicken and the steel to encourage sear marks and add more weight.
  • Leave this for 20 minutes or so. It should be smoking and sizzling away at around 375°F.
  • After 20 minutes, lift the weight off the chicken, flip it over and replace the weights. Cook for a further 20 minutes.
  • After a total of 40 minutes, you're into the final part. Flip it over once more. You're looking for a crispy skin while the meat itself is still juicy. Clear juices everywhere are essential, of course, so keep testing in this last phase. When the juices run clear, it's done. Remove at that point and cover while you finish the Niortskali.

Niortskali

  • In a decent sized pan, heat the chicken stock to a simmer and add the crushed garlic and paprika. Turn the heat down to low, and stir.
  • Add in the chopped coriander and enough cream to turn into a cream sauce consistency. Stir and keep stirring. Take off the heat, decant into a jug and set aside.
  • When the potatoes are ready, uncover, top with a slice of cheese to melt, a sprinkle of paprika and torn coriander.
  • Uncover the chicken, transfer to a carving board and carve. Serve with the potatoes and the Niortskali sauce. Bon Appetit !

Video

Notes

The Khmeli Suneli spice mix can be made well ahead of time.  I did this in a few minutes one evening in the week before making the chicken itself at the weekend.
Be flexible with the measurements for the marinade itself.  It'll be dependent on the size of chicken(s) you have.  In the end I had to uplift my ingredient levels to make sure I had enough to cover the chicken.  I've tried to reflect that in these measurements in the recipe.
You have a few things to keep track of with the timing here.  The potatoes need two hours on indirect while the chicken needs an hour direct.  After an hour with the potatoes I actually cheated and put them in the kitchen oven to finish off so I could have the Kamado for the chicken.  Two Kamados helps here :-).
Keyword Cast Iron, Chicken