I thought it'd be red

[madbaker]

This week's Resolution Recipe: Chicken or birds in sumac sauce.
[Spoiler alert: chicken.]

Take a chicken cut into pieces and fry it in lard; and take almonds and sumac with water and cook them with the chicken, and let it thicken, and serve it. (Anonimo Toscano, late 14th-early 15th c.)

1.5 lb boneless chicken thighs, coarsely diced
2 T lard
1/2 cup water
1.5 tsp sumac
3/8 cup almond meal
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper

Melt lard in a saucepan over medium-high heat. Add chicken and brown for 5 minutes. Add water and bring to a low boil. Stir in the rest and simmer over low heat until thickened, about 20 minutes.

I added salt and pepper, assuming they were standard additions. The recipe doesn't specify whether the almonds are blanched or ground; I assumed they were, because that thickens more readily.

What worked: It was not exciting, but fine. It was meat in glop. I found it a bit salty (but not overly so); it would probably not taste over-salty in tourney conditions.

What didn't: Sumac is red and has a nice citrusy tang; this was beige and didn't have any sumac flavor. Maybe I need to up this to 1/4 cup?

Will I make it again? It'll probably go into the tourney rotation. There's a variant with fish and oil that I will probably try at WAT. I might try this with more sumac as well...

Comments

[tshuma]

I'm curious to see if more sumac peps it up a bit. I am very fond of sumac, but outside of a couple of tagines I haven't found many recipes that feature it.

[madbaker]

Answer: yes!

[tshuma]

Awesome. Did you end up making the fish version eventually?

[madbaker]

I haven't yet. I'm intrigued though.

[madbaker]

It's here.