Name: Satsivi Chicken
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 55 min
Total time: 75 min
Yield: 4 servings
Cuisine: Georgian
Ingredients: 900 g Chicken thighs; 1500 ml Water; 2 leaves Bay leaves; 10 g Fine sea salt; 250 g Shelled walnuts; 6 cloves Garlic cloves; 200 g Onion; 20 ml Sunflower oil; 15 g Plain flour; 15 ml White wine vinegar; 3 g Ground black pepper; 6 g Ground coriander seed

About this dish

Satsivi takes its name from "tsivi" — cold — because unlike most sauced dishes, it is meant to be served at room temperature or cooler, once the sauce has had time to set to a soft, spoonable thickness around the chicken. It shares its walnut-based sauce with several other Georgian dishes but is the one most tied to a single occasion: no Georgian New Year table is considered complete without it, made in the quantities a whole gathering needs and left out for the length of the celebration.

Lactose-free
Not vegetarian because of Chicken thighs
Contains gluten because of Plain flour

Ingredients

4servings

900gChicken thighs
1500mlWater
2leavesBay leaves
10gFine sea salt
250gShelled walnuts
6clovesGarlic cloves
200gOnion
20mlSunflower oil
15gPlain flour
15mlWhite wine vinegar
3gGround black pepper
6gGround coriander seed

Instructions

Poach the chicken pieces in the water with the bay leaf and salt until cooked through, about 40 minutes, then strain, reserving the stock, and set the chicken aside to cool.
40 min
Tip: Keep the poaching liquid at a gentle simmer, not a boil — a hard boil toughens chicken on the bone and clouds the stock you need clear for the sauce.
Finely chop the onion and cook gently in the oil until soft and translucent, about 8 minutes.
8 min
Tip: Low and slow here matters more than usual: any colour on the onion will show as a muddy tinge in what should be a pale golden sauce.
Stir in the flour and toast it briefly until it smells nutty rather than raw.
3 min
Tip: This is a roux in miniature. Toasted flour thickens without leaving a starchy aftertaste — raw flour, stirred straight into liquid, does exactly that.
Whisk in enough of the reserved stock to make a smooth, pourable sauce, and simmer for a few minutes.
5 min
Tip: Add the stock gradually, whisking as you go — flour dropped into liquid all at once seizes into lumps that no amount of stirring later un-does.
Blitz the walnuts, garlic, ground coriander seed, vinegar and pepper with a ladle of the sauce into a smooth paste, then stir the paste back into the rest of the sauce.
5 min
Tip: Walnuts release their oil as they're blitzed, and blending them with warm liquid rather than dry keeps that oil emulsified into the sauce instead of pooling on top.
Pull the chicken meat off the bone into pieces, coat thoroughly in the sauce, and chill before serving at room temperature.
2 min
Tip: Give it at least an hour before serving, even if you don't chill it fully cold — the sauce needs that time to firm up around the chicken rather than pool on the plate.