Chicken Drumsticks with Eggplant, Turkish Style (Beğendi Tavuk)

Name: Turkish Chicken with Eggplant: Beğendi Tavuk Recipe
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 30 min
Total time: 1 h
Cuisine: Middle Eastern
Ingredients: Chicken drumsticks 4; Eggplants 2-3; Onion 1; Red bell pepper 1; Tomato 2-3; Garlic 2-3 cloves; Vegetable oil 1 tbsp; Butter 3-4 tbsp; Flour, milk, lemon, black pepper, salt to taste

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60 mins

Chicken with eggplant, Turkish style: Beğendi tavuk is an elegant, luxurious dish with a delicate flavor. It is so simple to make that you can cook it without much preparation, especially in eggplant season.

The East is a delicate matter, and Eastern cuisine is not just delicate but graceful! Take the names of Eastern dishes, for example: imam bayıldı, “the imam fainted.” Who would guess that the imam fainted at the sight of a superb Eastern dish: imam bayıldı?

The Turkish dish Beğendi tavuk is sometimes translated as “the sultan’s delight”: chicken with eggplant served on “beğendi” sauce. The same dish made with lamb is called Hünkar Beğendi. Eggplant dishes are especially popular in Turkey and across the East, and I admit I envy that, since eggplants grow poorly here and are usually imported from Turkey.

Eggplants for beğendi sauce should be young, not overripe. Otherwise you have to remove the seeds, which is a hassle. The eggplants need to be roasted for the sauce. Roasted eggplants are incredibly tasty in any case. In Turkey this is done over an open flame: the eggplants are held over the fire by the green stem until the skin chars. This method is believed to give the most authentic sauce and the tastiest chicken with eggplant.

9 ingredientsTo the recipe

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Ingredients

2 servings

Chicken drumsticks 4
Eggplants 2-3
Onion 1
Red bell pepper 1
Tomato 2-3
Garlic 2-3 cloves
Vegetable oil 1 tbsp
Butter 3-4 tbsp
Flour, milk, lemon, black pepper, salt to taste

Step-by-step recipe

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Chicken with eggplant can be made from a whole bird, especially for a festive table. But for everyday cooking it is much easier to make this dish with chicken drumsticks.
In the season of young vegetables, there are always top-quality eggplants, tomatoes, peppers and other vegetables for chicken with eggplant.
In a city apartment, roasting eggplants over an open flame is a problem, although a portable gas torch does the job perfectly.
You can also roast eggplants in the oven. Wash the eggplants, dry them thoroughly and pierce them with a knife in several places. Rub the surface with vegetable oil and roast until soft.
After roasting, hold each eggplant by the green stem and peel off the skin. Sprinkle the peeled eggplants with lemon juice so they do not darken in the air. This matters: the sauce should be light in color.
Melt the butter in a saucepan. Add 1 tsp flour (3 g), stir, and cook over low heat for a few minutes, stirring constantly.
Add half a cup of milk (100 ml) or cream. Simmer over low heat for another 2-3 mins, stirring constantly until the lumps dissolve.
Chop the eggplants fairly finely with a knife and add them to the sauce in the saucepan. Add a little salt and black pepper and keep simmering for 5-6 mins. If needed, add a little more milk. The finished beğendi sauce should be hot, but not scalding.
Drumsticks are very convenient for chicken with eggplant. Wash them, chop off the protruding bone with the joint using a cleaver, and remove the skin. Fry the drumsticks in butter until golden brown.
Add the onion, cut into thick strips, and fry until soft.
Scald the tomatoes with boiling water, peel them and remove the seeds. Cut one tomato into small cubes. Puree the rest with a blender.
Add the diced tomato, the red bell pepper cut into strips, and the garlic, chopped very finely with a knife (note: chopped, not pressed), to the chicken and onion.
Salt the vegetables and chicken to taste and add black pepper. Pour in the tomato puree and 2 cups of boiling water (400 ml) from the kettle.
Simmer the chicken with the vegetables, covered, over low heat for at least 20 mins. Then remove the lid, turn up the heat and reduce the sauce to the consistency of thick sour cream.
When the chicken and vegetables are ready, stir the beğendi sauce into a smooth puree and spread it in an even layer on a plate. Place the chicken legs on top and pour over the sauce the chicken was stewed in.
Serve the chicken with eggplant hot, with a little fresh herbs and fresh wheat bread.
Beğendi sauce goes with any stewed meat and even works as a side dish. By the way, I really like to sprinkle a pinch of ground dried hot pepper over the beğendi before serving.