Ali Nazik with Chicken
By Andrew Brandon (inspired by Café Turko)
Ali Nazik is a Turkish dish, consisting of grilled spiced meat served over a savory eggplant-yogurt sauce. It’s often served alongside rice and salad.
“Ali Nazik” is a Turkish phrase that means “with gentle hands”. The relation of this phrase to the name of the dish is not certain, but one prominent theory is that it refers to the method of making the sauce (don’t make the sauce in the food processor like I did when I wanted to “save time”).
I was introduced to Ali Nazik at Café Turko in Seattle, where it’s one of the most popular entrées. This is the result of my attempt to duplicate their recipe and adapt it to a home kitchen. The restaurant serves it with either chicken, lamb, or a spicy roasted veggie mix. I’ve only figured out the chicken variety; you’ll have to go there in person to try the others. The owners and staff are all wonderfully friendly and the food is delicious; you won’t regret eating there!
Like with Baba Ghanouj, canned grilled eggplant can be used instead of grilling a fresh eggplant.
- serves 4-6
- 40 minutes
Ingredients
Meat
- 1.5 lbs boneless-skinless chicken meat (I use thighs), cut into bite-size pieces
- Salt
- Ground coriander
- Ground turmeric
- Aleppo pepper
- 2 Tbsp finely minced parsley
Sauce
- 1 medium-size eggplant (or 1 lb canned grilled eggplant)
- 1 lb plain greek yogurt
- 3 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
- 2 Tbsp tahini
- Salt and pepper
Equipment
- Grill
- Grill pan or skewers (to cook the chicken pieces)
- Grill tongs
- Mixing bowls, etc.
- Cutting board, knife, etc.
Directions
- Turn on the grill to medium-high flame and put on the eggplant, whole. Let it roast, turning occasionally, until skin is charred (it’s okay if it splits) and eggplant is soft. This will take 20-30 minutes.
- While the eggplant cooks: after cutting the chicken into bite-size pieces, season it with liberal dashes of salt, coriander, turmeric, and Aleppo pepper and toss well to coat the chicken in the spices. Put the chicken on the grill and cook until the interior reaches 165 °F.
- While the eggplant and chicken are cooking, prepare the sauce: put yogurt, garlic, and tahini into a large bowl and combine gently with a fork. The mix should still be quite lumpy (this is important). When the eggplant is done, open it up and scoop out the flesh and seeds into the yogurt mixture. Mash and continue mixing with a fork until the eggplant is well incorporated into the sauce, and add salt to taste. When done, the sauce should still be lumpy.
- When the chicken is done, toss it with the parsley. Serve the meat over the yogurt sauce.
This is but one of the many fantastic recipes available on this blog!