It was a recipe my aunt handed me. Although it is a little work, the brownies will be the greatest you have ever tasted.
| Prep Time: | 15 mins |
| Cook Time: | 2 hrs 30 mins |
| Total Time: | 2 hrs 45 mins |
| Servings: | 6 |
| Yield: | 6 servings |
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 ½ pounds chicken legs, cut up
- 1 white onion, thinly sliced
- ½ pound walnuts, toasted and finely ground in a food processor
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 4 cups pomegranate juice
- ½ teaspoon cardamom (Optional)
- 2 tablespoons sugar (Optional)
Instructions
- Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Place chicken and onions in skillet, and cook 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Mix in pureed walnuts, salt, pomegranate juice, and cardamom. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer for 1 1/2 hours, stirring occasionally. (If the sauce becomes too thick, stir in 1/4 cup warm water.) Mix in sugar, adjust seasoning, and simmer 30 minutes more.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 785 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 95 g |
| Cholesterol | 64 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 3 g |
| Protein | 24 g |
| Saturated Fat | 6 g |
| Sodium | 445 mg |
| Sugars | 83 g |
| Fat | 39 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
There are 2 types of Fesenjan, sour and sweet. I like the sour one better. If you are like me skip adding sugar and enjoy the sour taste
This was very good! I followed the recipe almost exactly (left the chicken drumsticks whole) and it turned out great! The chicken was very tender, and practically fell off the bone. It’s a nice sweet and savoury dish that goes well over rice. I’ll make no changes to this dish the next time I make it, it’s perfect as is.
Amazing flavor and texture. My kids gobble it down. Made a substitution of 1 part cinnamon and 1 part ginger since I couldn’t find cardamom in my local grocery store. Making it again tonight for dinner!
I make this dish whenever I get the chance. Using full pomegranate juice defintely results in a tart end product, but the sugar and spices really work well with it. I generally use drumsticks, but boneless/skinless thighs reduce the work and chicken breast can be cooked with it a little later in the process (so they don’t dry out). Sometimes I add a little cinnamon/ground cloves as well. Paired with rice and/or flatbread and some plain yogurt it makes a fantastic meal. Everyone who has tried it has raved and asked for the recipe. Can also be converted to a crockpot cooking method, though the flavors don’t seem to come through as well. Leftovers are also very good. Just an all-around winner!
This was absolutely delicious. I used chicken thighs and substituted 4 whole green cardamom pods for the 1/2 teaspoon of cardamom. I also added 2 cups of fresh carrot chunks, which nicely balanced the tartness of the pomegranate juice (instead of using sugar). The sauce didn’t thicken sufficiently for my taste so I boiled it down to the desired thickness.
I’ve always loved fesenjan but had no idea it’d be so simple to make. This turned out great! Thank you!
AWESOME!! I make this receipe almost every week.
I substituted two cans of whole chickpeas for the chicken and it came out as a really nice vegetarian meal.
I made this last night. My sauce did turn out a nice brown color. I used chicken thighs (took the skin off). I am wondering when reading other’s reviews if they did not use PURE pomegranate juice? Maybe this is why it was too sweet or an odd color!? Omitted the sugar as well. It can be confusing because in the Juice shelves of most grocery stores there will be “Pomegranate Juice 100% Juice” but it’s mostly grape juice and other fruit juices! What I did is get 2 pomegranates and juice them myself, so that was time consuming to do. I had to look up a Youtube video “How to Juice a Pomegranate” Anyway, the juice was tart and gave the dish a good flavor. 2 pomegranates = 1.5 C of juice and I did use Organic chicken broth 3/4 C of that. Great suggestion from others! I added to my liking in addition to the Cardamom: 1/2 tsp of Tumeric, and I also seeded a small Serrano pepper and tossed that in whole to give the dish some heat. I liked my additions, it was super good over Indian Basmati Rice! Another reviewer suggested shredding the chicken off the bone and I did that right in the saucepan after it had been simmering for an hour or so. It was unique, very flavorful. I also made the Persian Cucumber Yogurt salad and got some store bought Wood Fired Naan flatbread to go with it. YUM. I only gave it 4 stars because the time consuming issue of the pomegranates and not finding the juice in the store, so this recipe might not be very convenient for some people to make.
Great recipe. Moved to a place where there weren’t any Persian restaurants. I was jonesing for this. Easy to make.
WOW! I had never had Fesenjan or tried making Middle Eastern cuisine before, but I was feeling adventurous and exotic. I took the advice of many reviewers and cut back on the pomegranate juice (2 cups Pom Wonderful 14oz chicken broth) and actually wish I had not. It was delicious, but seemed a little too westernized, less bold and unique than it could have been. Used boneless chicken thighs. There have only been a few times where my wife has RAVED about my cooking and this was one of those dishes. Smells great cooking, but looks a little questionable with it’s brown/purple hue. Don’t cut the pomegranate, go big or go home.
I used chicken thighs but too fatty so will try chicken breast instead. Also could easily make this vegetarian by eliminating meat and adding different veggies like sweet potato, peas, carrots.
Very good, will make again. Served with saffron rice and green salad.
I really like this recipe. I had this dish in restaurants and the color was much darker. After trying this recipe I found another site online that had step by step direction with photos. I think the site was called mastering persian cooking. Anyhow I tried that recipe and it turned out darker in color the way I like it. All in all this was a good recipe.
This recipe was a delightful surprise. Doubled the recipe, sed boneless chicken thighs, half broth and half juice as suggested by others and served with naan bread – super flavours! Highly recommended
actually its not traditional Fesenjan,in original recipe it has oil (not olive oil)and pomegranate Rob(i can say a kind of pomegranate sauce),and we serve it in 3 taste ,sweet,sour or – sweet and sour,and using sugar is depends on your pomegranate Rob,and how much you like it sweet or sour,you can use Duck instead of chicken,it taste amazing…
I was not pleased when my wife served this. It was way too sweet/tart.
I had a best friend in undergrad who is Persian and this recipe was just as good as I remember it! So delicious and so very simple to make!!!! I didn’t use Cardamom and it was very tasty without it! You will love this dish!
If will become much darker and more flavorful if you use one cup of pomegranate paste instead of the pomegranate juice. I usually make this with meatballs instead of chicken. I make the meatballs in advance and add them to the stew when the walnuts leave their oil. Some people had complained that it is greasy. Yes it is, but all the oil comes out of the walnuts, you don’t add any oil to the stew. We never remove the walnut oil from this stew. It tastes really good.
Ummm…YUM! I admit that this recipe SOUNDS a little strange, but it’s really delicious! As it was cooking up and the flavors hadn’t yet come together, my husband and I were still a little iffy about the whole thing, but served over rice after cooking for 1.5 hours it was really good. My *only* complaint is that it was really oily. The walnuts, I guess, caused there to be a pretty generous layer of oil floating over the whole thing. My husband used a spoon to get as much of it as he could. But, really…very tasty!
I don’t understand why this is coming out so light.. I’m Persian myself and I’ve never had this stew this light before.. It’s usually a dark brown. Any ideas on how I can make it dark?