Nardoun Stew; Wedding Dish in North of Iran

The food, which is served in the local areas as a wedding lunch, has a delightful taste. They use chicken, duck, or goose meat to make the food, while sour or sour-sweet pomegranate, onions, pomegranate paste, sugar and garlic make up the other ingredients. Some use plums in this meal as well.

 

Ingredient serving 2:

3 pieces of chicken thighs (about 600 grams)

1 large onion

2 cloves of fresh garlic

1.5 cups of pomegranate juice

2 tbsp. of pomegranate paste

0.5 cup of pomegranate arils

Salt, pepper, turmeric: as much as needed

 

Instructions:

At first, marinate chickens after washing them. To do so, place the chicken pieces in a suitable pot and rub the salt, turmeric, black pepper and spices to them as much as desired. Then, add one or two tablespoons of olive oil. Put them in the refrigerator for at least an hour. You can also use paprika powder and a little coriander powder.

After an hour, fry the chicken pieces with a small amount of frying oil. Remove the chickens from the pan and fry chopped onions in the same pan. Then add the garlic and pomegranate paste. Mix it immediately and then add pomegranate juice. Let the mixture boil, and then add chicken pieces.

First, the colour of the mixture is clear, but it gets darker while being cooked. Lower the heat till the chickens cook well. Add pomegranate arils at the end of the cooking process. Do not put the lid because it turns the colour of pomegranate arils white. In the end, we must have a thick sauce. Serve the Nardoun with rice, along with vegetables and pickles to make the food more delicious.

 

Notes:

• We can use different spices to make the stew tastier. For example, if you like sour tastes, use verjuice or bitter orange juice and if you are fond of sweet dishes, use sugar or plums.
• The important point is that the final taste of the food is determined by the sweetness or sourness of the pomegranate.
• You can add some sugar if the sauce is sour.