- Now let me introduce you to one of my favorite techniques.

- This sauce is so good, you don't want to let a single bit of it go.

- It is so savory and rich and comforting.

- And everybody gets in the kitchen and cooks.

So the family concept of cooking recipes they've made for generations is very much alive and well.

- This tastes like home, no matter where home is.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ - You know, the best way to get to know a cuisine is to research how they cook chicken.

In Turkey, they prepare Circassian chicken.

That's a form of chicken salad with a rich yogurt sauce.

In Spain, it may be arroz con pollo which is chicken with rice.

And finally, also from Spain, a chicken chilindrón.

That's a chicken braised with fresh vegetables.

Please stay tuned.

♪ ♪ (indistinct chatter) (utensil clattering) (sizzling) (birds squawking) - (speaking Turkish) (laughter) ♪ ♪ - Today we're doing one of my favorite recipes.

It's a chicken salad called Circassian chicken.

It's called Circassian because that's the name of a group of people who used to live in Russia.

In the late 19th century, many of them were expelled, some ended up in Turkey and some ended up at the palace.

And, of course, their food, their recipes came with them.

So this became one of the great palace dishes of the time.

Now, it's simple enough-- you cook some chicken, poach it and then you make a sauce for the salad with bread, with garlic and walnuts.

So it's a pretty simple recipe.

But it's one of those recipes that you can put into your weekly repertoire.

Now, I went to Turkey, I went to Istanbul, I took the ferry across to Anatolia, across the Bosporus, and I went to cook with a family of people.

Cagla Gurses is a chef and her mother lives there and her grandmother.

So we had the whole family there, and they made this recipe.

So it starts with cooking the chicken, which we've already done that, we have the chicken, some parsley, onions, salt, pepper, and garlic.

And we simmered that in water for about 25, 30 minutes until the chicken was cooked.

So we'll start by taking the chicken out as well as the garlic, and we're going to use the garlic.

Now it's been cooked in the sauce, so it's not as strong.

By the way, this dish is sometimes served as a mezze, a first course, or it can be supper.

I'm going to let that cool and then we'll shred that.

And now we're going to strain this out because we're going to use the liquid again.

Okay.

So we have garlic.

Let me get this.

This is the way I like garlic, by the way.

I like it really cooked.

So you get a really smooth, mellow flavor without the harshness, which I don't like at all.

Okay, so let me just get the rest of the liquid out here.

Sometimes that last little bit, you know, when you press it from the solids has a lot of flavor, so you don't want to waste that.

So now we have the garlic.

It also uses bread, of course, and the trick here is you need to moisten the bread a little bit.

And it's good to have stale bread, by the way, that's been sitting out a little bit.

And we're just going to put it in, and do that.

The reason we do this is because you want a nice, smooth sauce.

So soaking it, and then squeezing it gives you a much better sauce.

And, finally, of course, the walnuts go in.

So we're going to do this on a pretty low speed.

We're going to start this way, and then we're going to add a quarter cup of broth to get it nice and smooth.

The trick here, though, is you don't want it too liquid-y, because this is going to be a sauce for the chicken, so it has to be fairly thick.

(blender whirring) Okay, so we have a sauce that's nicely blended, and you want to keep it nice and thick like this because you're coating the chicken.

If it's too loose and too watery, it's not going to do that.

So that's our Circassian chicken sauce.

So we'll just reserve that.

We're going to let the chicken cool down just a little bit, and then I'll shred it and we'll be right back.

So let me introduce you to my favorite ingredient in the world.

This is a Turkish pepper maras or maras biber.

Biber just means pepper.

It's very similar to Aleppo pepper, and it's fruity, it's not that hot-- actually, when I was in Istanbul and then Anatolia, I went to a small spice shop.

They have six or seven different versions of this.

Some are sweeter, some are spicier, so you can buy what you want.

I bought a huge bag for about $7, it's terrific.

At home, I put this into a big container for shaking.

And I use this really in place of black pepper most of the time because it has so much more flavor.

So now let me introduce you to one of my favorite techniques-- it's called tarka.

At least it's used in Indian cooking that way, and it's oil or butter and it's warmed up and you add spices to it just for a minute or two.

And so you infuse the oil or butter with the spice flavor, and you drizzle this tarka over food before serving.

So it's a great way to take something pretty simple and then spice it up or add more flavor really easily at the end, I really love doing it.

So tarka is made with often just oil, but we're using oil and butter here.

So add just a little bit of oil as well.

So we're trying not to brown the butter.

Okay, then we'll add the maras.

And all we're looking for right now is for this oil-butter mixture to take on the color of the maras.

Just take a minute or two, and it's going to infuse it with this wonderful fruity, slightly peppery flavor that we can just pour over the salad at the end.

So we'll let that sit, and now we simply assemble the salad.

So we have the chicken.

We're going to take a little bit of the sauce that we made, about a cup of it and put that in with the chicken.

Just to moisten it.

The other thing you find at Turkish tables are pickles.

They love pickles.

I went to a couple of stores that sell nothing but pickles.

They had about 50 different choices.

They pickle everything, and some people actually stop by the store every day to have a cup of pickle juice, which is supposed to be very healthy.

So when you sit down and there are all the plates and you have Circassian chicken, you also have a couple of plates of pickles.

So we have the chicken.

We'll add a little bit of lemon juice as well.

Okay, so we're good.

Now, when I was in the apartment watching them make this, they also start by putting the sauce as a base at the bottom on the serving platter.

Feel like I'm back in pottery school here.

Okay, we're almost done.

So just get a nice schmear of it on the bottom of the plate like that.

Now the chicken goes on top.

And I'm going to do the tarka now.

And then we have walnuts.

Of course.

And we have parsley.

One of the other great things when I was visiting with Cagla's family is the mother was there, the grandmother was there, there was an aunt there, there was a brother there.

And everybody gets in the kitchen and cooks, and everybody has an opinion about how to cook it.

So the family concept of cooking recipes they've made for generations is very much alive and well.

So that's the recipe.

So, going to spoon this off and obviously serve it with bread.

There's always bread at the table in Turkey.

Mm.

This is as good as the one I had in Anatolia.

A great creamy sauce with walnuts and some cooked garlic cloves and bread that's been moistened in the stock.

Obviously, the poached chicken, walnuts, parsley on top.

And the maras biber, that tarka, that infused butter-oil mix to add a little bit of spice and fruit at the end.

So if you're tired of regular chicken salad, you might want to try Circassian chicken.

♪ ♪ - At some point, everybody needs comfort food.

And today I'm going to show you one of my favorites.

We're going to make arroz con pollo-- very few ingredients and lots of big, comforting flavor.

Let's get started.

In here, I have cooking some chicken thighs that have been cut up.

I'm going to let them cook undisturbed.

on medium-high heat until they have browned.

So arroz con pollo means rice and chicken.

Very, very simple.

And many, many Spanish-speaking places have a version of this.

It's a little bit different everywhere.

People will argue about their recipe.

This is a simplified version, and I think you will love it.

♪ ♪ So it's been about four to five minutes.

My chicken has browned nicely.

I'm going to add onions now, And now I get to stir and stir a lot for five minutes until the onions are cooked down.

Okay, my onions are softened.

They're looking great, I'm ready to move on.

Here is an important step; I'm going to add tomato paste, and we're going to brown this really, really well, and that's going to give a ton of flavor to this dish.

Now, along with my tomato paste, I'm going to add some pimentón de la vera, also known as smoked paprika, very characteristic of Spanish cooking, and also adds this lovely smoky depth of flavor.

A little salt and pepper.

And I'm going to cook this and stir it down for a couple of minutes until the tomato paste is nicely browned.

This is smelling so good already.

The entire atmosphere has changed.

I was just in Spain traveling, and this reminds me of my trip.

It's amazing how smells can bring back such strong memories.

Okay, I am so excited about this.

My mouth is watering already.

We're going to add the rice.

Now we are using Italian arborio rice.

It's much easier to find than bomba or Valencian-style rice, and still gives us that creaminess and texture that we want.

In goes the rice, followed by some water.

So I'm going to give this a good stir, bring it up to a simmer, and then cover it, reduce the heat, and let it cook for 20 minutes.

So my rice is finished cooking, and I'm going to add some frozen green peas to the mix.

This also adds a lovely pop of color.

And the peas don't even need to be defrosted.

They're going to defrost naturally in the heat of the rice.

So while my peas are thawing, I'm going to prep some toppings for this dish.

I have some sliced green olives here and some roasted red pepper.

So I'm just going to chop up these roasted red peppers.

They are slippery, so I want to be careful of my fingers.

Great.

Wonderful.

Now that that's done, let's check in on our rice.

This is looking so great.

Let's give this a stir.

Now, you'll notice the consistency is almost a little bit soupy, and that is exactly what we want.

I also have some browned bits of rice on the bottom, which are actually my favorite part.

In some places it's called pegao and people fight over it.

I am ready for my favorite part, which is to serve myself some of this yumminess and taste it.

Mmm, I am excited about this.

Let's put in some olives.

And some chopped red pepper.

And now we eat.

This tastes like home, no matter where home is.

it is so savory and rich and comforting.

The pops of color from the peas and all of that flavor from the smoked paprika and the browned tomato paste are making for a really, really pleasant evening at home for me.

Memories of Spain right here in my own kitchen.

This is a really easy, simple dish.

One pot, comfort food for a weeknight or a weekend where you want to just snuggle up and feel so good.

I hope you enjoy this as much as I do.

This is our arroz con pollo.

♪ ♪ - The Spanish stew chilindrón has a consistent base of three vegetables: onions, red peppers and tomatoes, cooked down until jammy and sweet.

It's the meat that can vary.

Spanish ham is a very popular choice, but beef, pork, and chicken are also great options.

We learned a really delicious chilindrón de pollo from a women's-run poultry shop in the Zaragoza central market.

It was Rose Maria Loraque Gimeno that showed us how to make her chicken chilindrón, and that's what we're doing today.

In honor of us learning this from a poultry butcher, we are using bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts for our version.

The first thing we do is brown those chicken breasts.

We season them generously with salt and pepper, get some olive oil heated very hot in a Dutch oven, then put the chicken breast skin side down in the oil and let them brown deeply, about five to seven minutes.

We're only going to brown one side.

Then we'll take them out and proceed with the rest of the stew.

This chicken has been in there a good five to six minutes.

Let's take a quick look.

Needs a little more time.

See that browning already starting.

That looks great, but it needs to get even deeper.

Give that another minute.

And meanwhile, we'll start slicing the onion.

We're using red onion.

We like the deeper flavor that red onion brings, but, really, any kind of onion will work.

This is a very, very adaptable recipe.

Okay, so this onion is peeled, slicing it in half, and then we will slice it thinly.

Now I'm slicing it-- You can see that's the top and the bottom of the onion, we're going to slice it this way lengthwise.

Just want nice thin slices, and turn it over.

There we go.

Do the same thing with the other half.

There.

Okay, that is ready.

Let's take a look at our chicken.

Ah, that is beautiful.

This is what we want.

Okay.

Now the chicken is not even near cooked.

We don't need it to be cooked right now.

It will finish cooking with the peppers and the onions and the tomato.

Okay, we've got a little bit of olive oil and some rendered chicken fat from the skin in there.

We'll add our onions to that.

We'll add a half teaspoon of salt to these onions and let those cook down about three minutes, just until they start softening.

I'm going to stir these well.

And then to accelerate the onion softening, we'll put a lid on this for about three minutes.

There we go.

Okay, look at this.

(onions sizzling) Oh, I know you can hear that, they're beautiful.

They are not brown, they're just soft.

To that we will add-- look at all these crushed cloves of garlic and a little bit of thyme.

The garlic, just crush it, it's going to cook down a little bit.

They'll stay whole, but that's okay.

We're halfway there, almost.

All right, now, what's next is those vegetables I told you about, tomatoes.

And the red peppers, these are just sweet red bell peppers.

They're combined with the onions.

We've got our holy trinity of chilindrón right here in the pan, a little garlic and thyme.

And one of the secrets that we learned from Rose Maria was a little white wine, at least for her version.

And then later, at the very end, she adds some smoked Spanish paprika.

Delicious.

Okay, that's it.

It has reached a nice full simmer, and we will add the chicken back in, skin side up this time, and we'll just nestle it down inside the vegetables.

There we go.

The chicken is probably about half covered by the vegetables and the liquids.

Okay, we'll add all of this back in, all the good stuff, okay.

That will keep on a low simmer.

We'll put the lid on, and now we'll cook it low and slow, 20 to 30 minutes maybe, until the chicken is cooked all the way through.

And the vegetables are soft and jammy.

Oh!

The best smelling steam.

(chuckles) This looks fantastic.

This has been in there about 25 minutes.

The chicken is beautifully cooked.

The sauce is cooking down.

The vegetables have gotten very tender.

We're going to remove the chicken breasts to a platter, this is the platter we'll serve it on, so.

Just take those out.

Here's a fantastic thing about chicken on the bone.

Not only does having the bone in there add a lot of flavor to the sauce, but chicken on the bone will stay hot for a good long time, a lot longer than boneless chicken will, so this can sit while we reduce this sauce.

We're going to let this simmer for another ten minutes to thicken and concentrate even further.

We'll put a little foil over this.

Just very loosely, like a tent of foil to keep the chicken warm.

And then we'll stir this.

Oh, this is so fantastic, it's beautiful.

This will have about ten minutes to simmer, you'll see it will get reduced even more, the flavor will concentrate.

That wine in there adds an incredible acidity, and just a beautiful bright note.

Brings out the flavor of the other vegetables.

♪ ♪ This is perfect.

Just going to remove that.

What we do want to do, you do want to find that thyme sprig and remove it, because the stem of the thyme can be kind of tough.

Ah, there it is.

We will turn this off now.

Nice, all right.

Now this is finished reducing.

It's thick-- oh, so delicious.

Added the chopped parsley and smoked Spanish paprika.

If you don't have smoked paprika in your house, put a little bit of plain sweet paprika in there, even a touch of hot paprika if you want that little bit of heat.

I can already smell this.

(inhales) Mm, that smokiness.

The paprika also not only flavors this sauce, it thickens it even further.

It's even thicker now than it was just a few seconds ago before I added it.

A little bit of salt and pepper.

Probably there.

Stir that in and then we are ready to serve.

Look how thick that is, sits right on the spoon.

Just going to serve it right over the chicken breasts.

It's a stew, it's a sauce, it's a topping, it's chilindrón.

And it's very versatile.

Extremely delicious.

This is our Spanish chilindrón with its base of peppers, onions, and tomatoes.

A little white wine, a little Spanish smoked paprika.

Simmered until sweet and thick and we're ready to serve.

Really beautiful, look how deep red that sauce is.

Orangey red, it's just the most beautiful thing.

♪ ♪ Oh!

(chuckles) This sauce is so good, you don't want to let a single bit of it go.

Get some nice crusty bread, serve it on the table with the chicken, and let everyone just sop up the sauce with it as they go.

And this is Milk Street's chicken chilindrón from the northern regions of Spain.

You can get this recipe and all the recipes from this season at MilkStreetTV.com.

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