Tirşika mirîşkan — Tangy Chicken Stew

Name: Tirşika mirîşkan — Tangy Chicken Stew
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 70 min
Total time: 100 min
Yield: 4 servings
Ingredients: 3 tbsp sumac (ground); 300 ml warm water (for the sumac water); 3 piece eggplants (about 800 g); 1 tbsp salt (for soaking the eggplants); 4 piece chicken legs (about 250 g each); 1 tsp salt; 3 tbsp clarified butter; 2 piece onions; 2 piece green pointed peppers; 4 clove garlic; 1 tbsp tomato paste; 1 tbsp pepper paste (Turkish Biber salçası; mild or hot); 2 piece tomatoes; 500 ml hot water; 1 tsp red pepper flakes (Pul Biber); black pepper to taste

A Kurdish classic from Diyarbakır and Mardin in southeastern Turkey: Tirşika mirîşkan is Tirşik made with chicken, a stew of chicken legs and softly braised eggplant in a red sauce of tomato and pepper paste, which is made pleasantly tangy with sumac water at the end; tirş means sour. In Turkish it is called tavuklu tırşık. Unlike Tirşika Amedê — Sour Eggplant Stew with Minced Meat, Chickpeas and Yogurt, chicken rather than meatballs goes into the pot here, and there is no yogurt.

⏱

Cook time

100 min

🍽️

Servings

🧂

Ingredients

View Original ↗

Nutrition

per serving

531 kcal

Calories

36 g

Protein

34 g

Fat

18 g

Carbs

Ingredients

For 4 servings

Estimated cost~€1.70 · ~€0.45/serving

Instructions

1
Stir the sumac into the warm water in a bowl and leave it to steep so that it releases its sourness.
2
Meanwhile, wash the eggplants, cut off the stem ends and peel the eggplants in strips so that they look striped, then cut them into cubes of about 3 cm. Soak them in a bowl of cold water with the salt so that they absorb less fat later.
3
Pat the chicken legs dry, cut them through at the joint and rub them with 1 tsp salt. Heat the clarified butter in a wide, heavy pot and brown the meat until golden all over, then remove it.
4
Peel and dice the onions, deseed the pointed peppers and cut them into rings, and peel and chop the garlic. Sweat the onions in the pan fat until translucent, add the pointed peppers and garlic and fry briefly.
5
Stir in the tomato paste and pepper paste and toast, stirring, until the paste darkens and smells fragrant. Drain the eggplant, squeeze it firmly with your hands, add it to the pot and fry, turning, until it has taken on colour all over.
6
Dice the tomatoes and add them with the hot water, the red pepper flakes and a little pepper, lay the chicken pieces with their juices on top and bring to the boil. Braise, covered, over a low heat until the meat is tender and the eggplant is on the point of falling apart.
7
Pour the sumac water into the pot through a fine sieve or a piece of muslin, pressing the sediment well, then discard it. Continue simmering uncovered until the sauce has reduced a little.
8
Check with a meat thermometer next to the bone: the chicken must be 75 °C throughout, the juices should run clear and the meat should come away easily from the bone; otherwise braise for a few more minutes. Season with salt and pepper and adjust the sourness to taste with a little more sumac.
9
Tip: Serve with white rice, for example Birinc bi şehriye — White Rice with Toasted Vermicelli, or flatbread for dipping, plus fresh spring onions; with bread the meal is no longer gluten-free. In summer, diced zucchini often goes into the pot as well and cooks for the last 15 minutes. The stew tastes almost even better reheated, keeps in the fridge for two days and should be reheated thoroughly until the chicken is back at 75 °C; cool leftover rice quickly, put it in the fridge within two hours at the latest and eat it within a day.