Name: Chicken in Spicy Orange Sauce (Portakalı piliç)
Yield: Serves 4
Cuisine: Turkish
Ingredients: 2 tablespoons clarified butter, or olive oil with a little butter; 2 red onions, sliced; 2 teaspoons coriander seeds; 2 tablespoons currants, soaked in water for 30 minutes; 4-5 cloves garlic, crushed with salt; 1 teaspoon nigella seeds; 6 chicken thighs; 2 small thin-skinned oranges, each cut into 8 segments with the peel on; 3-4 tablespoons yogurt; salt and freshly ground black pepper; 1 tablespoon fresh mint, roughly chopped; juice of 1 orange; 2-3 chilli peppers; a few fresh mint leaves; 1 strong-smelling cinnamon stick; 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon; 1 tablespoon dark honey; ¼ pint/150 ml water

Preparation info

Serves
4

Difficulty
Medium

Appears in

Classic Turkish Cooking

By Ghillie Basan

Published 1995

About

This dish comes from the area around Mersin in the south of Turkey where sweet, thin-skinned juicy oranges grow. The combination of oranges and spices gives it a tangy taste and, depending on the strength of the chilli peppers, it can be quite hot. It is delicious cooled with mint-flavoured yogurt and works well with the legs, thighs or breasts of chicken and turkey.