Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Tovuqli dimlama (Chicken stew in the oven)


"Tovuqli dimlama" is prepared in the oven, it takes some time, but no attention is required:) It is really tasty! You can also use a chicken without skin if you want to make this dish more healthier. I myself prefer making it with skin, as it will give it's natural oil and a great flavor to the meal. Usually instead of zucchini, eggplant is used, but I like it with zucchini. Some people make this meal in a glass jar, which is also nice, but they will taste same. I didn't have glass jar big enough to cook this meal, so I used my glass dish.
Ingredients for 3 people:
2 big pole of chicken, or you can use breast, or just a whole chicken
2 onions, peeled and very thinly sliced
2 zucchinis, sliced in circles
2 big potatoes, peeled and cut in circles
2 tomatoes, also sliced in circles
30 gr of melted butter or olive oil(optional)
Some hard cheese for sprinkling when serving(optional)
50 ml of water
Salt to taste
1 tbsp of cumin seeds
Fresh chopped coriander
Take glass dish or big glass jar, place the potato circles as a first layer, then put onions, after onions come tomatoes and the last layer will be zucchini. Cut your chicken in medium sized pieces and place them over the vegetables, sprinkle some salt, cumin seeds, pour oil evenly and then pour water. Cover the glass dish with a foil paper or if you are using glass jar then cover it up. Put to the unheated oven (or your glass jar just will break up), turn on a heat on medium and close the oven. You are free now at least for 1 hour. After an hour just check it up, it must be bubbling and boiling. Just check up the chicken, if it is ready you can take the meal out, if it's not just put it back and wait for another 30 min. With my terrible oven I cook this dish for 2.5 hour:( But if you have a good oven it will cook faster, so check it up. Taste saltiness and add some more salt if needed. When it is really ready, take the foil out and switch on a grill and cook for 10-15 min more , just to give a golden color to the chicken and then take from the oven and sprinkle with fresh chopped coriander (and cheese) and enjoy this delicious dinner or a lunch. You can serve some fresh salad with this dish as "Achchiq chuchuk".
Yoqimli ishtaha!!!

6 comments:

  1. This food is making me hungry :)
    Too bad I can't eat it because I don't eat meat :(

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  2. Then try it without meat adding mushrooms instead of chicken, that will be also very tasty:)

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  3. Hmm, with mushrooms... I'll try it. Thank you.
    BTW, do you have a barley recipe?

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  4. sorry i forgot to answer you. i meant not sweet barley (not for breakfast). i usually use it as a side dish or make soup with barley. i was just wondering if you have other interesting recipes ;)

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  5. Let me think...hmm, I think I would rather ask my mum about it, she knows so many recipes of Uzbek cuisine, I am sure she will give some recipe with barley:)and then I will cook and post it here:)

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