Chanakhi Recipe: Georgian Lamb and Vegetable Stew in a Pot
Chanakhi is a Georgian dish of sliced meat stewed in a clay pot together with vegetables. It is often called a roast, which is not quite right. That is more of a stereotype left over from Soviet times, when any meat with vegetables was called a roast. Strictly speaking, though, a roast is meat cooked in one piece. And the word ჩანახი most likely comes from the Turkish çanak, meaning pot.
As a rule, the original recipes use lamb. For home cooking you can use fatty beef. What matters is that the meat is fresh, from a not too old animal, and moderately fatty. A hind leg of lamb with a little fat-tail fat added works well.
The vegetables are supposed to outweigh the meat, or at least match it. Typical vegetables to go into the pot with the meat are potato wedges, eggplant, onion and fresh tomatoes. The spices can be typically Georgian or very simple – Svan salt and black pepper. All the vegetables go into the pot in layers and are not stirred while cooking. You can add other vegetables to the dish if you like. Carrots and hot peppers are common, and so is tomato paste.
Ingredients
2 servings
- Lamb (leg meat) 400 g
- Fat-tail fat optional
- Onion 2
- Eggplant 1
- Tomato 2-3
- Hot pepper (optional) 1
- Potatoes (small) 4-5
- Garlic 2-3 cloves
- Cilantro 0.5 bunch
- Svan salt, black pepper, bay leaf to taste
Step-by-step recipe
- In Georgia, chanakhi is cooked in a clay pot. The clay is usually glazed, and the pot has a lid. Most likely, the dish as we know it appeared once potatoes began to be grown there. Many Caucasian cuisines have similar culinary masterpieces, each with features typical of its region and traditions. Get ready some fatty boneless lamb, the vegetables and a lidded pot of a suitable size.
- This is a “set it and forget it” dish: all the ingredients go into the pot, you pour in some liquid, and the high heat of the oven does the rest. Many recipes advise browning the meat and vegetables first and then layering them in the pot. A simpler and quicker way is to layer everything raw. The only thing to do in advance is peel the eggplant, slice it into rounds and sprinkle with salt – after 10-15 mins, when the liquid comes out, just rinse and squeeze the slices.
- Put a little lamb sprinkled with Svan salt on the very bottom of the pot, either in one piece or cut into 40-50 g chunks. Sometimes the meat goes on the very top instead. It makes little difference, since all the ingredients stew at the same time. The flavors and aromas all blend together into one simply amazing whole.
- The amount of potatoes basically sets the overall volume of the dish – take enough potatoes so that at the very end, once everything is in, the pot is filled right up to the lid. With a pot of about 1.5 l, 4-5 medium potatoes are usually enough. Peel the potatoes, cut them into large wedges and lay them on top of the lamb.
- Lay the eggplant slices on top of the potatoes. If you want your chanakhi spicy, add a fresh green or red hot pepper – as much as you like. By the way, you can add bell pepper too – more vegetables only make the dish better. Cut the hot pepper into strips or rings and put it in the pot along with the eggplant. If you can, finely chop a little fat-tail fat, season it with black pepper and add it together with the eggplant.
- Peel and dice the onion. Spread it over the eggplant and pepper, then press down gently. The meat and vegetables should be packed quite tightly. Dice half of the tomatoes and put them on top. There should not be much room left in the pot – the vegetables should reach the very top. Pour a third of a cup of water into the pot. Then put it into a cold oven and switch the oven on – it is better not to put the pot into a hot oven, as clay does not like sudden temperature changes.
- Heat the oven to 200°C. It will take some time for all the ingredients to heat up and for the pot to start simmering. You can easily tell by the steam escaping from under the lid. Chanakhi takes about 1 h 30 mins to cook. In that time the meat becomes tender, and the vegetables cook through without losing their shape. Note that the ingredients will settle a little. Cut the remaining tomatoes into wedges and lay them over the vegetables in the pot. Peel and finely chop the garlic and add it to the tomatoes as well. Put 1-2 bay leaves on top.
- Put the pot of chanakhi back in the oven for another 15-20 mins. After that the dish is ready. The pot is usually brought to the table as is – just set it on a small plate and put a spoon next to it. At the table, the lamb and vegetables are spooned onto plates and sprinkled with chopped cilantro.
- If you did not brown the ingredients beforehand, the juicy vegetables give the dish plenty of liquid. If you do brown them first, it is worth adding more spices – coriander, dried herbs. Celery root, basil and parsley will not go amiss either.
Yield: 2 servings Calories: 65 Prep: 15 mins Cooking: 1 h 45 mins Ready in: 2 h Category: Main Dishes Cuisine: European Rating: