Name: Shkmeruli
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 35 min
Total time: 50 min
Yield: 4 servings
Cuisine: Georgian
Ingredients: 900 g Chicken thighs; 8 g Fine sea salt; 3 g Ground black pepper; 50 g Unsalted butter; 10 cloves Garlic cloves; 300 ml Whole milk; 100 ml Heavy cream; 10 g Fresh coriander

About this dish

Shkmeruli takes its name from the village of Shkmeri in the mountainous Racha region, and its recipe is famously short: chicken, garlic, milk or cream, and heat. There is no herb, spice or acid to soften the garlic's edge — the dish is a deliberate demonstration of it, added in two waves so the first mellows into the sauce while the second, stirred in at the very end, stays sharp and raw. It is usually served with the sauce still bubbling, in the clay pot it cooked in.

Gluten-free
Not vegetarian because of Chicken thighs
Contains dairy because of Unsalted butter, Whole milk, Heavy cream

Ingredients

4servings

900gChicken thighs
8gFine sea salt
3gGround black pepper
50gUnsalted butter
10clovesGarlic cloves
300mlWhole milk
100mlHeavy cream
10gFresh coriander

Instructions

Pat the chicken pieces dry and season all over with salt and pepper.
5 min
Tip: Dry skin browns; damp skin steams. A few minutes uncovered on a plate does more for the final colour than anything you do in the pan.
Melt the butter in a wide pan and brown the chicken, skin-side down first, until deeply golden and nearly cooked through, about 20 minutes total.
20 min
Tip: Resist moving the pieces once they're in — the crust that browning builds is most of the dish's flavour, and it needs contact time with the pan to form.
Add two-thirds of the garlic to the pan and cook for a minute until fragrant, without letting it colour.
3 min
Tip: Garlic added to a hot, near-empty pan burns in seconds and turns bitter. Have the sauce ingredients measured and ready before this step, not after.
Pour in the milk and cream, scraping up anything stuck to the pan, and simmer until the sauce thickens slightly and coats the chicken.
10 min
Tip: The browned bits on the pan base are seasoning, not mess — scraping them into the sauce is most of what makes it taste of the chicken it cooked.
Take the pan off the heat, stir in the remaining raw garlic, scatter with coriander, and serve at once.
2 min
Tip: This second addition is the whole point of shkmeruli — cooked garlic is mellow, raw garlic stirred in off the heat stays pungent, and the dish is built on that contrast.