82. Madira [Chicken in Yoghurt Sauce] Pleyn Delit  Hieatt, Constance B.; Hosington, Brenda; and Butler, Sharon

Cut fat meat into middling pieces with the tail: if chickens are used, quarter them. Put into the saucepan with a little salt, and cover with water: boil, removing the scum. When almost cooked, take large onions and Nabatean leeks, peel, cut off the tails, wash in salt and water, dry and put into the pot. Add dry coriander, cumin, mastic and cinnamon, ground fine. When cooked, and the juices are dried up, so that only the oil remains, ladle out into a large bowl. Now take Persian milk as required, and put into the saucepan, adding salted lemon and fresh mint. Leave to boil: then take off the fire, stirring. When the boiling has subsided, put back the meat and herbs. Cover the saucepan, wipe its sides, and leave to settle over the fire: then remove. BCB 1.23

This dish calls for lamb or chicken, and either is good this way. A dish very like this, for chicken or lamb in yoghurt sauce, although without spices and calling for preserved orange peel rather than salted lemon, appears in Nesta Ramazani's Persian Cooking (University Press of Virginia, 1982), 149.

Chicken in Yoghurt Sauce
 

Imperial	Metric	Ingredient
2 1/2 lbs	1100 g	chicken, cut up
2 cups	3 dl	plain yoghurt
2	2	medium-large onions, thickly sliced
2-4	2-4	leeks, trimmed (with coarse dark green top removed), washed, thickly sliced (if large), and left to drain.
1 tsp	1 tsp	ground coriander,
1 tsp	1 tsp	cumin
1/2 tsp	1/2 tsp	Cinnamon
		juice of 1 lemon  or  one pickled lemon, thinly sliced (see note below)
1 tbsp	1 tbsp	fresh mint, chopped
		salt to taste
optional:
1/4 tsp	1/4 tsp	pulverized mastic

 

1. Put lamb or chicken in a large saucepan, add salted water to cover and bring to a boil. Turn down heat and skim off foam or scum; then cover and simmer 20-30 minutes. Meanwhile put yoghurt into a yoghurt strainer or a fine strainer lined with coffee filter paper or two layers of paper towels, so that some of the liquid will drain out: it need not be completely drained, like 'yoghurt cheese.' When the meat is almost done, add onions, leeks, and spices; cook over low heat, uncovered, until the water has evaporated and the meat and vegetables are cooked. Remove meat to a bowl; you may prefer to skin the chicken (if used) at this point.

 
2. Put the partially drained yoghurt in the cooking pan with the lemon, mint, and, if not using pickled lemon, salt to taste. Bring to a simmer (not a full boil, or it may curdle), then remove from heat, stir in meat, cover, and let stand at least 5 minutes in a warm place.

NOTE ON PICKLED LEMON

• (adapting one ancient Arabic recipe): Slice lemon lengthwise into wedges, and rub with coarse salt; wrap up lemon and set aside for 2 days. Then cover salted lemon with lemon juice and (olive) oil and store in a suitable jar at least a week. Or follow the suggestion of Claudia Roden in A New Book of Middle Eastern Food (Harmonsworth, Middlesex: Penguin, 1985), 396: freeze lemon wedges or slices, then salt them; they will be softened in about an hour, and need be stored in oil only a few days. Also see Charles Perry's article in PPC 50 (1995): 22-4.