Chicken Stir-Fried with Tomato and Sweet Pepper Paste
Tavuk Tava
This is a favourite student meal in our region – quick, simple and cheap.
Some locals will easily use at least three times as much oil as below, but I prefer the less greasy version. A popular variation specific to our village is to sprinkle kaşar cheese, similar to a mild cheddar, on top at the end. I find the cheese version bit weird myself, but if you are a cheese lover you might want to try it too.
250g chicken breast or thigh fillet, cut into 1cm cubes
3 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp sweet pepper paste (tatlı biber salçası), or tomato paste
½ cup water
¼ tsp salt
¼ tsp thyme (kekik)
1/8 tsp black pepper
3 garlic cloves, crushed
1 onion
4 dark green bull-horn peppers (sıvı biber)
1 small tomato
1. Place the chicken in a small bowl with the olive oil, and mix well. Leave to soak while preparing the rest of the ingredients.
2. Dissolve the sweet pepper paste in the water in a second small bowl. Add the salt, thyme, black pepper, and crushed garlic, and stir to combine.
3. Chop the onion, bull-horn peppers and tomato.
4. Heat up a Turkish saç pan or wok over medium heat, and tip in the bowl of chicken and oil. Stir until the chicken is mostly cooked.
5. Add the paste and spices mix, stir-fry for a couple minutes, then add the onion, pepper and tomato. It will smell fantastic. But hold on, not much longer now.
6. Cook 5 minutes more, stirring occasionally, until all the vegetables are soft. Add a little extra water if you think it looks too dry at any point.
7. Serve in the saç pan with yogurt and plenty of bread on the side.
SERVES 2