Chikhirtma

Ingredients

• 3⅓ lbchickenwhole chicken, alternatively legs
• 14⅛ ozonionfinely chopped
• 4egg yolksome sources use whole eggs
• 3 tbspwheat flourfor the roux or slaked in cold water
• 2⅔ tbspWhite wine vinegarwhisked into the yolks
• 1⅓ ozbutterfor sweating the onion
• 1 bunchcilantrostems simmered, leaves added at the end
• 4 clovesgarlicsweated with the onion or in the broth
• saltto taste
• black pepperground, to taste
• 6black peppercornsadded to the simmering broth
• 1 tspmarigold or saffronas an infusion for colour and aroma (optional)
• 1bay leafin the broth (optional)
• 1 bunchDillonly in one source, alongside cilantro (optional)
• 1Lemonjuice as the acid instead of vinegar (optional)
• 2carrotonly to flavour the broth (optional)

Method

1. Rinse the chicken, put it in a large pot and cover it with cold water. Bring to a boil and carefully skim off the foam as it rises.
2. Add 150 g of the onion, all four garlic cloves, the bay leaf, the peppercorns, the cilantro stems and, if you like, the carrots. Let everything simmer gently for 60 to 120 minutes, until the meat is tender.
3. Lift out the chicken and let it cool a little. Pull off the skin, take the meat off the bones and cut or shred it into bite-sized pieces. Strain the broth through a sieve — the bay leaf, peppercorns, carrots and the other aromatics stay behind in the sieve and get thrown away — and keep the broth hot. If you're using saffron or Imeretian saffron, pour a little hot water or hot broth over it now, let it infuse and strain it.
4. Sweat the remaining 250 g of onion in butter or ghee over medium heat until soft and translucent, without letting it colour.
5. Scatter in the flour and cook it for a few minutes, stirring — it should stay pale. Then pour in the hot broth a little at a time, stirring constantly, until the soup is smooth and lightly thickened, and let it bubble briefly.
6. Whisk the egg yolks with the white wine vinegar until smooth. Stir in hot broth a spoonful at a time, whisking constantly, so the egg mixture is tempered and won't curdle.
7. Pour the tempered egg mixture into the pot while stirring, return the meat to the soup and heat it through only — from here on the soup must not come to a rolling boil.
8. Season with salt, pepper and a little more acid, then stir in the chopped cilantro leaves and, if you like, the saffron infusion you prepared earlier. Let it stand briefly and serve hot.

Tips and variations

Lemon juice works instead of the wine vinegar, and you can mix dill in with the cilantro. If you'd rather skip the roux, slake the flour in cold water and stir it into the boiling broth; cornmeal works too, and goes well with finely chopped chicken skin crisped in ghee. The onion can also be sweated in the fat skimmed off the broth, or in a mix of vegetable oil and butter — in that version the cilantro stems don't go into the broth but soften alongside the onion for 15 minutes. And instead of putting all the flour into the roux, you can stir part of it into the egg mixture. Serve chikhirtma hot, with bread.