Fessenjan

Man, I was Suzie Homemaker/Mrs. Cleaver tonight! Busy busy busy with this secret ingredient...

Yes, pomegranate molasses which can be found at your local Middle Eastern market (Vine Ripe or North Park Produce)!

Now this is a recipe I haven't done in a few years...

It's called 'Fessenjan' and it only involves five ingredients! Yikes, I just realized I forgot the salt! Not just for the photo but for the recipe! But anyways, just visualize that it's there!

I first saw this recipe on Wandering Chopsticks blog (see her recipe here) and made it several times over the past few years. Every time I've made it, everyone enjoyed it. One Christmas, I even gave away bottles of the pomegranate syrup with one onion and a small bag of chopped walnuts with her recipe!

The recipe is so damn easy and you get to make a lovely blended concoction. Here are the chopped onions, walnuts and pomegranate syrup about the be pureed...

*"Now that's good Bass!"!

Lovely, ain't it?  Don't let the brownish color or the slight pruny smell gross you out. No, it's all good people.

Here's the some of the sauce glopped onto the chicken.  This was before I spread the marinade under the skin and all over the chicken thighs (with the bone).

Before going in the oven, all nicely slathered up, skin side down.

And out of the oven, golden brown. You'll notice one piece was already eaten before I remembered to take a snap.

Just look at that delicious skin and the bubbly fragrant sauce...


Fessenjan (Persian Walnut Pomegranate Chicken)
(adapted from WC's recipe)

Ingredients (for my version):

• 6-8 chicken thighs (bone in)
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
• 1/2 cup Pomegranate molasses
• 1 chopped small onion
• 1 tsp salt (which I forgot by mistake, but you can add it in in your version)

You may either choose to marinate the chicken an hour or so or even overnight. In my case, I did not marinate the chicken and put it in the oven right away. Either way, it will taste good!

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 425 F.
• Puree 1 small onion, the walnuts and the pomegranate molassses until a thick paste is formed (I ended up pureeing all of the ingredients at once instead adding the syrup later)
• Spread the paste on both sides of the chicken pieces
• Marinate overnight or bake right away
• Bake skin side down at 425 for 10 minutes
• Take it out and lower the heat to 350 F and bake for an additional 30-40 minutes.

Serve with basmati rice (or any kind of rice).

I've seen this recipe spelled as "fesenjan", "fessenjoon" or as "khoreshte fessenjan". At Soltan Banoo, I saw it spelled as "fessenjoon" on their menu. I've been meaning to try their version. Hopefully this vacation when I have more time, I can sample that. But in the meantime, this is what we'll be having for dinner for the next couple of days (if it lasts that long).

I love how this tastes both sour and sweet at the same time. Plus, the pureed walnuts give the sauce a bit of a neat texture. This also looks quite lovely served on a bed of saffron basmati rice and garnished with fresh pomegranate seeds.

*"Now that's good bass!" is a quote from an old SNL episode featuring Dan Akroyd as Julia Childs. In the skit, he is enthusiastically pureeing all kinds of things in a blender and ends up pureeing a fish and actually drinking the fish juice!