Chicken with Sour Cherry Syrup

It occurred to me last week as I was going through my old posts that I never posted a recipe for the chicken that I had made to go along Albaloo Polow, Persian Rice with Sour Cherries.  In the skim of things I suppose it is not too bad of a thing because for some time now I have been wanting to add a new section to this blog.  I love making Persian food, there is no doubts about it and whatever I post here are traditional Persian dishes.

It i no secret to anyone that knows me that I love love love Persian spices and in recent years I have started incorporating them into my non-Persian dishes. I can even tell you when it all started too.  A few years back the Food Network came up with the Food Network Star idea. It was the very first year and after pondering about it for a few days I decided that I was going to throw my hat in the game.

My friend Winford helped out with the filming of my segment and I courageously submitted a dish that was a cross between the two cuisines that I have grown up with. I personally thought it was genius.  Clearly, the FN didn’t think much of it! But that doesn’t particularly matter, what is important to me is this whole new creative world that it opened up for me where I get to use quintessentially Persian spices and ingredients to create new dishes.  I originally referred of this whole new repertoire of mine as “Persian Fusion,” until I posted the Persian Chicken Soup recipe last month. One of my new friends, who lives across the pond, Homa left a comment saying:

I always make chicken soup when I’m ill but never thought about adding dried limes and Persianizing it.

I laughed from the bottom of my heart at the word Persianizing. It just sounded so appropriate and I could not stop giggling every time I thought about it.  I thought, I should totally use that as the name for my Persian Fusion category. Thanks for the inspiration Homa!

So here is the first post that goes into the “Persianizing” category.  Just in case you are wondering, I will post the recipe that I sent to FN as well some time soon!

First things first, I thought about this recipe when I was getting ready to make some chicken to go with Albaloo Polow. I had some leftover Sour Cherry syrup and decided to add it to the chicken for some added flavor.  The results were good, the taste was mild and not over powering.  I will definitely do this again as it was such a nice complement to the rice, especially when the chicken juices were poured over the rice.

Ingredients

1lb chicken (i used boneless skinless thighs, but you can use any part of the chicken)

1 onion, diced

1/8 tsp turmeric

4 – 5 tbsp sour cherry syrup

salt & pepper

Sauté’ onion until translucent.

Add turmeric and let the onions cook for a couple of minutes longer.

Season chicken with salt and pepper and add to onion.

Shake your pan so that the chicken touches the bottom of the pan.  Cook for about five minutes then flip chicken, cover and cook for 5 minutes longer so that the juices release.

Add 1/2 cup of water and sour cherry syrup. Give it a stir, cover and cook for 20-30 minutes longer. Once ready check and adjust seasoning.