Satsivi (Georgian Chicken in Walnut Sauce)
Satsivi (also spelled satzivi, Georgian საცივი) is a Georgian cold dish: poached chicken or turkey in a sauce of ground walnuts, onion, garlic, and broth, spiced with blue fenugreek, marigold petals known as Imeretian saffron, coriander, and clove. The name comes from the Georgian word for cold, and the dish is served cold or just cool, because the sauce sets as it chills, so it is cooked a day ahead. It is a fixture of the Georgian New Year table.
Ingredients
- 1500 gwhole chicken
- 2 lwater, for poaching
- 400 gwalnuts
- 2 pcsmedium onions (about 300 g)
- 5 clovesgarlic
- 40 gbutter
- 1 tspblue fenugreek (utskho suneli)
- 1 tspimeretian saffron (dried marigold)
- 1 tspground coriander
- 3 pcscloves
- 1 pinchcinnamon
- 0.25 tspground red pepper
- 2 tspsalt, divided
- 1 tbspred wine vinegar
- 1 bunchfresh coriander
- 2 tbsppomegranate seeds, to serve (optional)
Method
- Put the chicken in a pot with the water, one onion, and 1 tsp salt. Bring to a boil, skim, and simmer on low for 50–60 minutes, until the meat comes away from the bone easily. Lift the chicken out, let it cool, and pull the meat off the bones in large pieces; the skin is optional and adds fat. Strain the broth and measure out 800 ml; keep the rest for soup.
- Optionally, brush the meat pieces with 15 g melted butter and roast them at 190°C for 20 minutes for a deeper flavour, then cool completely.
- Grind the walnuts through a meat grinder with a fine plate two or three times, until you have a soft, almost wet paste. A food processor works in short pulses; stop before it turns into nut butter, and do not run a blender continuously, as it gives an oily paste. The finer the grind, the smoother the sauce, and the more oil it releases.
- Finely chop the second onion and cook it gently in 25 g butter over low heat for about 10 minutes, until completely soft but not coloured.
- Pound the garlic with 1/2 tsp salt and mix it into the walnuts with the blue fenugreek, imeretian saffron, ground coriander, crushed cloves, cinnamon, red pepper, and most of the chopped fresh coriander; keep a few leaves for serving.
- Stir the walnut mixture into the softened onion, then add about 700 ml of the warm broth a ladleful at a time, stirring, until the sauce is the thickness of pouring cream. Make it slightly thinner than you want it on the plate, because it thickens as it chills; add up to 100 ml more broth if needed. Warm it on low heat, stirring constantly, until it is steaming hot, about 70–75°C. Small bubbles at the edge are fine, but never let it boil hard, or the walnut oil separates out.
- Season with the remaining 1/2 tsp salt, adjusting to taste, and the red wine vinegar. Add the chicken pieces, turn them in the sauce, and let everything cool to room temperature. Chill for at least 4 hours, ideally overnight, until the sauce thickens. Serve cold with the reserved coriander and a few pomegranate seeds.
FAQ
The name comes from the Georgian word for cold, so satsivi literally means a cold dish. The poached poultry sits in the walnut sauce and chills until the sauce thickens, and it is served cold or just cool, usually as a starter. It is made ahead and belongs to the Georgian New Year and Christmas table. For the same flavours without any cooking, try the raw walnut sauce bazhe.
Turkey is the traditional bird for the New Year table, and chicken is the everyday version; duck and goose are used as well. A bird with some fat gives a better result, because the broth goes into the sauce. Whichever you use, poach it first, and for more depth brush the pieces with butter and roast them briefly before adding them to the sauce. A turkey takes much longer to poach than a 1.5 kg chicken, so test it with a knife at the thigh instead of going by the clock.
Blue fenugreek (utskho suneli) is a Georgian herb with a warm, nutty, slightly bitter aroma, and Imeretian saffron is dried ground marigold petals, which give the sauce its yellow tint and a mild floral note; it is not true saffron. Both are sold at Georgian and Eastern European grocers or online. If you cannot find them, regular ground fenugreek is a rough stand-in, and a small infusion of real saffron threads can supply the colour, though the character shifts.
Walnuts are about two-thirds fat, and a hard boil pushes that oil out, leaving a greasy layer on top and a grainy mass underneath. Warm the sauce on low heat, stirring, until it steams (about 70–75°C), and take it off before it simmers. A coarse grind makes splitting more likely, so put the nuts through the grinder twice or three times. If it has separated slightly, take it off the heat and whisk in 2–3 tablespoons of warm broth, or give it a few seconds with an immersion blender.
Serve it cold as a starter with fresh bread, or with ghomi, a soft cornmeal porridge, to soak up the sauce; chopped coriander and a few pomegranate seeds go on top. Adjarian khachapuri also sits well on the same table. Satsivi keeps 2–3 days in the fridge and is better on the second day. Take it out about half an hour before serving, because it is best cool rather than ice-cold, and loosen it with a spoonful of warm broth if it has set too firm.
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