Tsiplenok tabaka: flat-fried chicken with butter and fresh herbs sauce

This wonderful dish comes from Georgian cuisine, and I took this particular recipe from my beloved book “Mamushka” by Olia Hercules.

Even though I have made this dish many times, I can never get enough of it. The meat is amazing - juicy, tender. And that divine smell of butter and fresh herbs!

For everything to work out well, remember two things.

• First, choose small, preferably very young chickens. If they are larger, the cooking time will be longer due to the thickness of the meat. Additionally, you have to be more careful so that the meat doesn't burn on the bottom before the top is cooked.
• Don't be tempted to increase the burner power. The chickens must be well covered with parchment, pressed down and spend an appropriate amount of time in the pan over low heat.

Actually, there are three :) Here, the herbs should be fresh. This is just won't work well with dried ones. However, don't worry if you don't have all of the herbs from the recipe - just use the right amount of what you have, or replace it with others with delicate leaves.

I highly recommend!

Chicken tabaka (Tsiplenok tabaka) – flat-fried chicken with butter and herbs

Wonderfully juicy chicken, fragrant of fresh herbs and butter, weighed down and friend slowly.

Equipment

• 1 big heavy-bottom frying pan
• 1 slightly smaller frying pan with heavy bottom
• weights - for example a cast-iron dish or a pan filled with water
• sharp knife or scissors for pultry
• baking papercircle that is slightly bigger than the big frying pan
• chopping board

Ingredients

• 2 small chickens or 1 middle sized
• 4 cloves of garlic crushed or chopped finely
• 40 g butter
• 1 tablespoon oil
• ½ tsp cayenne pepper or more, to taste
• salt
• 2 Tbsp fresh herbs mix, chopped: parsley, tarragon, basil, dill

Instructions

• Wash the chickens, pat dry them and cut along the backbone with scissors or a sharp knife. Turn over with the cut side down and flatten pressing with your hand.
• Rub with garlic and sprinkle generously with pepper and salt on both sides.
• In the larger pan, heat the butter and olive oil over medium heat. Place the chicken cut side down (breast side up) and fry for 3-4 minutes until the bones are nicely browned - it adds a lot of flavour to the dish! Don't skip this step. Later in the frying process, the chicken will be frying only on the skin-side, so it is important that this side also gets the nice colour.
• Turn the chickens over, breast side down. Cover tightly with a disc of cut parchment paper (it will retain moisture and the chicken will be super juicy). Place a smaller frying pan on top and weigh it down well with a cast iron pot or pot filled with water. Fry for another 5-6 minutes.

  Some old recipes mention heavy bricks or even old cast irons used to weighed down the chicken!
• Reduce the burner power to minimum and fry for about half an hour. After 30 minutes, carefully remove the paper (hot steam!) and check if the chickens are almost ready - after puncturing, the juice flowing out should be transparent. If this is not the case, cover the chickens and continue frying until their meat is ready. The mid-size chicken may take a bit longer.

  You can also try pulling away the leg - when the chicken is ready, it should come away easily from the rest.
• When the chickens are beautifully fried, transfer them, breast side up, to the platter and let them rest for a few minutes fort the juices to settle. There should be a lot of buttery sauce in the pan. Add chopped fresh herbs and fry for 1-2 minutes.
• Pour the aromatic butter and herb sauce over the meat and serve!

Course: main course

Cuisine: georgian

Keyword: chicken, fried chicken, chicken in herbs, tsiplenok tabaka

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