Soft & creamy, a little wobbly, an almost custard-like or eggless custard-like I guess. Thickened milk & broth with onions, shredded chicken & crisp fried onions! It’s a very traditional Egyptian dish that mum, my aunt, my grandma, would make and I love it!
The crisp fried onions add sweetness, texture & crunch and I also serve it with crisp bread for extra crunch.
Enjoy!
Keshk Frakh
Ingredients:
250 gm (1 large) raw chicken breast
1 bayleaf
1 whole cardamon pod
1 small onion quartered
780 ml (3 cups + 2 tbsps) whole milk
250 ml (1 cup) chicken broth (see notes below please)
3 chicken stock cubes
1 tsp ghee or butter
Some black pepper
250 ml whole milk (yes, an extra cup)
80 gm (4 full/rounded tbsps) flour
20 gm (1 full/rounded tbsp) extra flour
2 medium onions, halved
Oil for frying
Method:
- In a large pot add the milk, broth, tsp of ghee or butter, some black pepper (not a lot) & the stock cubes.
- In a jug or bowl add the 250 ml of milk & the 80gm of flour. Whisk together till the flour is completely dissolved. Set aside.
- In a small pot place the chicken breast and cover with water. Add some pepper, a bayleaf, a cardamon pod and bring up to the boil then turn the heat down and leave to simmer for 15min or until its cooked but still tender & juicy.
- While the chicken is poaching gently, start to thinly slice or chop your onion halves. Either way is ok, the only important thing is you want them all to roughly be the same size so they fry evenly and you don’t end up with some of the onions being burnt. Now try as best as you can to separate the slices from each other. Transfer the onions to a bowl or soup dish and sprinkle the extra tbsp of flour over the onions and mix. Make sure they are all covered in the flour. This helps in the frying and getting a crisper, non-greasy result. The slicing/chopping & separating of the onions is probably the longest step in the prep! Set aside for now.
- Back to the chicken; once cooked, take it out and let it cool somewhat before you start to shred the meat. Set aside.
- Now in a deep frying pan or pot, heat the oil for frying – needs to be at least 5 or 6 cm deep (2 inches). Get the oil nice & hot but not smoking! Test by placing an onion piece in, it should go down and float back up again, small bubbles all around it. If it turns to a crisp straight away, the oil is too hot, so turn the heat down to medium and leave it to cool down first.
- Line a plate with some kitchen paper to drain the fried onions on.
- Now add in the onions in 2 batches. It will sizzle up a bit. Take the heat down to medium and fry them for a couple of minutes. They should still not have colored.
- With a strainer, take out 4 tbsps and add them to the pot with the milk & broth. Also take out 2 tbsps of the onion flavored oil & add that to the milk and broth.
- Keep the remaining onions moving with a metal strainer & keep an eye on them till they start to brown. Take care that they can start to go very dark quickly so keep watching like a hawk! We don’t want bitter burnt onions! Sweet, crisp & browned is what we are after 🙂 When browned, take the pan off the heat & start straining them out onto the plate. Leave them to cool. And fry off the second batch.
- Now place the pot of milk & broth on a medium heat and leave to warm. Stir to make sure the stock cubes have dissolved. Once its hot, add the shredded chicken and give a stir.
- Now add the milk mixed with flour, stirring as you do so no lumps form. It will thicken as soon as it comes to a simmer. Let it bubble away while you stir for 2 or 3 more minutes to cook out the raw flour taste.
It should be like a thick bechamel, but not too thick or stiff. It should coat the back of a spoon and when you draw a line through it, slightly closes up (but the gap remains). If you think its too thick add 2 more tbsps of milk or broth & stir.
- Take it off the heat and ladle in to the bowls while still hot and leave for a few minutes for the top to set (it will form a skin, and we want that in this recipe :-))
When you are ready to serve top with the crisp fried onions. Place the rest of the onions in a serving bowl on the side & serve along with crispy bread.
Enjoy!
Notes:
- The poaching liquid here is too weak for a broth. Either make your own broth or buy ready made broth. If you can’t do either, substitute the cup of broth with another cup of milk & add an extra stock cube.
To make simple “middle-eastern” chicken broth: Take one whole chicken, cleaned and halved (skin on), 1 bay leaf, 1 mastic “drop” ( مستكه – optional), 1 onion quartered, a few whole black pepper and enough water to cover. Bring to a boil then turn the heat down and let simmer gently, partially covered, for 45 min or till chicken is cooked through (Pull at a joint it should give way easily and if you cut through a thick piece of chicken it should not be pink). Once cooked, remove the chicken & strain the broth into a jug or bowl. Leave to cool down so the fat rises to the surface (you can place it in a fridge or freezer after it cools). When the fat is solid or at least set, skim off most of the fat and discard. Taste the broth – if it’s a bit weak place in a pot and let it simmer away some more to condense the flavors. The chicken itself can be quartered and fried or remove the skin and shred the chicken meat.
- Don’t add any salt as the stock cubes add enough salt & seasoning.
- Don’t place the fried onions on top of the keshk until you are ready to serve or they will go soft.
- If you make them early and they cool down, you can reheat them in a microwave in short bursts of 15 sec till warmed through. Alternatively, place them in a baking dish and pour boiling water around them up to half the height of the bowls and let them heat in the simmering water bath.
Riham's Messy Kitchen! 