Kharcho: Georgian beef soup recipe

It is difficult to imagine a more aromatic and rich cuisine than Georgian, which is probably why it is considered one of the most delicious. Today we dare to experiment a little and prepare a free interpretation of the famous dish - Georgian chicken kharcho. This magnificent soup can truly be considered the hallmark of Georgia, and therefore its preparation should be approached thoroughly and with all seriousness.

Step-by-step recipe for Georgian chicken kharcho

Typically, this soup is made from chunky beef on the bone or lamb. We will cook kharcho with poultry, but don’t think that this substitution will make the dish lose its taste. In fact, there are areas where this particular recipe is traditional.

Ingredients

Chicken thighs or drumsticks – 800 g;
Onions – 5 pcs;
Rice – ½ cup;
Tomatoes – 1 piece;
Garlic – 5 cloves;
Mix of spices for kharcho (khmeli-suneli, cilantro, etc.) – 1.5 tbsp;
Bay leaf – 1 piece;
Tkemali or satsebeli – 2 tbsp;
Fresh cilantro - a bunch;
Salt - to taste;
Adjika – ½ tsp.

How to cook Georgian chicken kharcho

Chicken thighs or drumsticks should be washed well and the skin removed if desired. It is better to divide the thighs into smaller parts to make it easier to cook.
Pour a little vegetable oil into a large cauldron, put it on high heat and wait until it warms up properly.
Place the chicken in the cauldron and fry quickly until golden brown, stirring all the time. In parallel with this, we deal with the bow.
Peel the vegetable and chop as finely as possible. Add to the chicken, reduce heat and stir.
Scald the tomato with boiling water, remove the skin and remove the central hard part. Place in a blender bowl and grind into a homogeneous mass (you can use a grater, but a blender is more convenient).
Pour the tomato mixture into the cauldron, stir again and leave to simmer for a while.
When the chicken has sweated a little, pour boiling water or strong chicken broth and add rice. It must first be rinsed thoroughly so that the water is clear when drained.
Peel the garlic and add it to the blender bowl. Pour some water here, add salt and spices. First chop the cilantro a little and add it here. Grind everything until we get a homogeneous mixture.
We move on to the next step when the rice is completely cooked. Usually this takes about 20 minutes, but you can continue cooking a little earlier or a little later - time is not so important here.
Pour the resulting garlic mass into a cauldron, and also add tkemali or satsebeli sauce and adjika. Stir, and only when the broth is completely red, cover with a lid. Reduce the heat to low and let the dish simmer for a few more minutes.
After this, we taste the kharcho and, if necessary, add a little salt.

This thick and rich soup is served with pita bread or corn gomi. You can adjust the spiciness of this soup by changing the amount of garlic and seasonings.

If you haven’t found a special mixture of spices for kharcho, then you can only use hops-suneli, the taste of the soup will not be so bright, but overall the food will not lose much from this.

Kharcho with chicken

Some people don’t like beef for its taste, while others refuse such meat for dietary reasons. In such a situation, you can prepare chicken kharcho soup. Take a chicken breast, half a glass of rice, an onion, three cloves of garlic, a few tablespoons of Tkemali sauce, three tablespoons of tomato paste, fresh herbs and khmeli-suneli seasoning.

Boil the chicken breast in three liters of salted water. After a quarter of an hour, add pre-washed rice and finely chopped onion to the pan. After twenty minutes, add chopped garlic, Tkemali, tomato paste or finely chopped tomato, spices, salt and pepper to taste into the soup. After ten minutes, just before the end of cooking, add finely chopped herbs. To make a particularly tasty kharcho, let it brew a little. A couple of minutes under the lid - and you can enjoy a wonderful dish.

Georgian chicken kharcho with nuts

Ingredients

Chicken thighs – 2 pcs + –
Tomatoes – 3 pcs + –
Rice - 5 tbsp. + —
Walnuts – 200 g + –
Onions – 4 pcs + –
Tkemali or satsebeli - 3 tbsp. + —
Khmeli-suneli - 1 tsp. + —
Vegetable oil - 1 tbsp. + —
Garlic – 4 cloves + –
Ground red pepper - 1/2 tsp. + —
Cilantro - bunch + -
Bay leaf - 2-3 leaves + -
Salt - to taste + -

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How to cook Georgian kharcho soup from chicken

We rinse our thighs with cool water. There is no need to remove the skin, since we will remove it from the finished meat later. Place them in a large saucepan, add water and let them cook for a couple of hours.
We take out the thighs, place them on a dish and let them cool slightly.
Pour the rice into a colander with small holes and rinse until the water runs clear. Add clean cereal to a saucepan with broth simmering over low heat.
Remove the skin from the thighs, clean the meat from the bones and chop it, putting it back into the pan.
Peel the onion and cut into small cubes. Pour vegetable oil into a small frying pan, heat it and fry over medium heat until golden brown.
Scald the tomatoes and peel them, removing the central hard part. Place in a blender bowl and add walnuts.
Peel the garlic and also add to the tomatoes. Grind into a homogeneous mass.
Pour the tomato mixture into the frying pan with the onions and simmer over medium heat until excess moisture has evaporated. During the stewing process, add hot chili pepper, a small amount of salt and the khmeli-suneli spice.
Transfer the resulting sauce into the pan with the meat and rice and mix well.
Add tkemali, cover with a lid and cook over low heat for another 15 minutes.
While our soup arrives, wash the cilantro and chop it finely. Add chopped herbs 5 minutes before the dish is ready.
Turn off the heat and let the kharcho stand for another 10 minutes with the lid closed.

In total, it takes about 2.5 hours to prepare such Georgian chicken kharcho, with the first one and a half of them preparing the broth. At this time, you can start preparing other ingredients or make a pita roll stuffed with fresh herbs, which is often served with this soup.

Ingredients

Georgian traditional soup, the country's calling card, is made exclusively from beef. We can, of course, find a recipe from pork, lamb and even chicken, but these are all variations - real kharcho includes only beef.

Choose your beef carefully. If possible, choose meat on the bone. This way you guarantee the richness of the soup.

In addition to beef, be sure to add the following products to the soup: rice, tklapi (sour plum puree), walnuts, herbs, hot peppers and garlic. Thanks to all these components, the recipe will be a rich kharcho, spicy and invigorating in Georgian style.

Kislinka

It is difficult to get tklapi today. Dried layers of pureed plum can only be found in Georgia itself, or you can make it yourself. Much more common is tkemali sauce, which is perfect for the dish. The pleasant sourness of the sauce will highlight the aroma of the meat and give the soup a zest. If you don’t have tkemali, fresh plum or cherry plum, which is usually put in the summer season, will do. To create sourness, you can use pomegranate juice, since it can be found in any store.

Spice

As for greens, the recipe suggests adding a lot, in excess. Cilantro, dill, and parsley are suitable as pleasant and aromatic herbs.

We create a pleasant spiciness of the soup using a pod of hot red pepper, but if you don’t have it, use ground pepper. But here it is important not to overdo it. Kharcho should be spicy, not spicy. Spicy in this case is needed only as an assistant to enhance the taste of other ingredients of the dish.

Selection of rice and nuts

The recipe prefers to limit itself to the choice of uncooked rice. Starchy varieties are what will be great for Georgian kharcho.

Walnuts are a traditional, but not obligatory component. If for some reason you don’t like this type of nut, just write down the recipe without this item. For those who respect nuts, we can advise you to pre-roast the nuts or crush them with a rolling pin, this way you will help their taste to fully develop.

Cooking

Having carefully analyzed all the components of the future Georgian kharcho, you can start cooking. So, you should have the following products in front of you:

· A piece of beef (on the bone, brisket or shank) – 500 g.
· Round or oval rice – 5 tbsp. l.
· Water – 3 l.
· Onions – 3 pcs.
· Greens (parsley, cilantro, dill) – to taste.
· Seasonings (khmeli-suneli, black pepper, salt) - to taste.
· Bay leaf – 3 leaves.
· Garlic – 3 cloves.
· Hot pepper – 1 pod.
· Tkemali sauce – 2 tbsp. l.
· Tomatoes – 3 pcs.
· Walnuts – ½ cup.

Cooking time – 3 hours.

Number of servings - 4.

To make beef kharcho real and tasty - recipe

1. Rinse the meat thoroughly. If the piece is on the bone, put the whole piece in a saucepan and cover with water. While waiting for it to boil, skim off the foam. Next, reduce the heat and close the lid. If you chose boneless meat for the recipe, cut into portions and cook. For softness and tenderness of the meat, it should be cooked for about two hours. The pieces can be cooked a little less.
We wash the rice at least seven times. After making sure that the water has become clear, add the rice to the broth, after removing the meat from it. Don't worry that there is very little rice for this amount of broth. It will boil over. And if you put more, it will turn out to be porridge, although very tasty.
While the rice is cooking, fry the finely chopped onion. It is advisable that it remains transparent and not golden in color, it will be more correct. Peel the tomatoes, pour boiling water over them, and cut into small pieces. Add to the transparent onion. Add this mixture to the soup. At the same stage, add bay leaves and whole hot peppers.
Finely chop or crush the walnuts with a rolling pin and add to the soup. After this we return the meat.
After 5 minutes, add spices (hops-suneli, black pepper and salt). After waiting another 5 minutes, add fresh chopped herbs and finely chopped garlic to the kharcho.

The soup should sit under the lid for about 10 minutes, and it can be served. You can offer pita bread as a tasty addition. Making a simple roll will take a minimum of time. Spread processed cheese onto a thin sheet, sprinkle generously with your favorite fresh herbs on top and wrap in a roll. For impregnation, place the pleasant “bonus” in the refrigerator. You can do all these preparations while the meat is cooking.

The real Georgian kharcho is ready, and all the relatives and neighbors have already come running to smell its delicious aroma, without waiting for an invitation. They will be delighted, you can be sure. We wish your friendly family bon appetit!

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How to cook kharcho: a simple step-by-step recipe

This variant is common in Megrelia, a region in western Georgia. This kharcho can be served as a main course or a very thick soup. It is quite spicy, with a piquant taste: pepper lovers will not remain indifferent. If you can’t find tkemali or tklapi, but your soul is asking for an original dish, this is just what you need. Adjika and tomato are responsible for the sourness characteristic of kharcho soup in this Georgian recipe. A unique feature is the absence of traditional rice.

Product set:

beef pulp (1 kg);
onions (7 pieces);
butter (30 g);
dry red wine (150 ml);
tomatoes in their own juice (400 g);
tomato juice (5 tablespoons);
walnuts (80 g);
parsley root (1 bunch);
adjika (3 tablespoons);
a mixture of five peppers (1 tablespoon);
saffron (1 tablespoon);
hops-suneli (2 teaspoons);
coriander (10 grains);
vegetable oil;
salt (to taste).

Cooking process:

The beef is cleared of film and fat and cut into large cubes. The cut meat should be peppered, greased with vegetable oil and left for a while. The next step is to place the beef in a frying pan in one layer and fry it on all sides. No need to add oil. The finished meat is placed on a plate.
The onion should be finely chopped and fried until golden brown in a mixture of vegetable and butter. After this, you need to pepper and pour in red wine.
The reserved meat is added to the onions with wine and lightly salted. Everything is mixed and cooked until the wine evaporates. Next add tomato juice and crushed tomatoes. Everything is mixed and simmered for 20 minutes.
Parsley leaves must be separated from the stems and chopped, coriander must be crushed with a knife and chopped. Coriander, saffron, adjika and suneli hops are added to the finished meat. You should be careful with adjika, adding it gradually: it is this ingredient that largely determines the spiciness.
You need to chop the nuts, add them to the dish and mix. The finishing touch is chopped parsley.

Cooking process

Although there are more traditional recipes for this soup, there are some tricks you can use to save money and reduce calories. Such as, for example, how to cook chicken kharcho. Or use a less rich dressing.

In order to cook kharcho using chicken meat, you need to follow this process:

It is better to cook chicken meat whole - this will preserve its juiciness and will allow you to avoid wasting time on long-term catching of pieces after cooking. It is advisable to add a few bay leaves and chopped celery root to the broth. They will add the necessary aroma at the initial stage. You need to cook for about 30-35 minutes, periodically removing the foam.
In parallel with cooking the broth, the dressing is prepared. First, finely chopped onion is fried in a frying pan until golden brown. After this, add the main component of the dressing, chosen by you - tklapi, tkemali or pomegranate juice, tomato paste (in summer you can also use grated fresh tomatoes), salt and pepper and herbs. You need to fry all this for no more than five minutes, since the onions must not be allowed to darken.
Add garlic to the pan, turn off the heat and cover it with a lid. You can keep the mixture in this state for up to 5 minutes.
Remove the meat from the broth and cut it into pieces. If there are bones, separate them from the main mass; they will no longer be needed.
Place the round, polished rice, washed several times, into the water. You need to cook it for about 7 minutes.
After this, chopped meat and dressing from the frying pan are added to the broth. The whole mass is brought to a boil and cooked for about 10 minutes.

Classic kharcho

To prepare the traditional version of the dish, you will need fresh and high-quality products and Georgian spices. All the necessary ingredients are sold in large supermarkets or at the market. To prepare kharcho soup with potatoes and rice and chicken you will need:

2 pcs. chicken legs weighing about 600 g.
3 potatoes
1 carrot
2 onions
3 tbsp. l. rice
2 tbsp. tomato paste
2 tbsp. tkemali sauce
1 tsp Khmeli-Suneli seasonings
1/3 tsp. hot pepper
5 cloves garlic
1 bay leaf
4-5 tbsp. vegetable oil for stewing vegetables
Large bunch of cilantro
Walnuts
Salt to taste

Step-by-step preparation of the dish in the traditional version:

Wash the chicken parts under running water and place in a saucepan, cover with cold water and add salt. After boiling, remove the foam with a slotted spoon.
Add 1 peeled onion, bay leaf and cilantro stems to the boiling broth. Cook until done, 1-1.5 hours.
Peel onions and carrots, wash and finely chop.
Pour the required amount of vegetable oil into a frying pan with a thick bottom and place the prepared vegetables. Simmer over low heat for 7-10 minutes.
When the vegetables become soft, add spices, tomato paste, tkemali and stir fry. Add 3-4 tablespoons of water and cook covered for 5 minutes.
Peel the potatoes and cut into cubes.
Remove the bay leaf and onion from the finished chicken broth. Remove the bird parts and separate the meat from the bones. Return the chicken meat back to the broth.
As soon as it boils again, add the potatoes.
After 20 minutes, add the washed cereal to the brew.
After boiling, place the stewed vegetables into the pan. Let it boil, reduce heat and cook for 10-15 minutes.
Finely chop the cilantro, pass the garlic through a garlic press or grate it on a fine grater, chop the walnuts. Add kharcho to the almost finished soup, let it boil and turn off the heat.

Recipe for real Georgian soup kharcho

beef on the bone (400 g);
rice (4 tablespoons);
tkemali (3 tablespoons) or tklapi (palm-sized leaf);
walnuts (half a cup);
head of garlic;
hops-suneli (1 teaspoon);
a bunch of cilantro;
a bunch of parsley.

The beef should be thoroughly rinsed with cold water and placed in a large saucepan. Next, the meat is poured with two liters of water and placed on the stove. After boiling, set the heat to low, remove the foam and boil for two hours. The finished meat is removed, separated from the bones and placed in a boiling broth.

Advice: if during cooking it was not possible to carefully collect the foam and the broth turned out to be cloudy, you should strain it

Classic kharcho - a real recipe

Components:

water – 3 l;
beef – 0.7 kg;
onions – 5 pcs.;
rice – 150 g;
tkemali - 3 tbsp. l. (or pomegranate juice – 70 ml);
hops-suneli - 1 tbsp. l.;
coriander seeds – 0.5 tsp;
garlic – 4-5 cloves;
parsley root – 1 pc.;
parsley - 2 tbsp. l.;
basil or celery – 2 tsp;
black pepper – 12 pcs. crushed peas;
red pepper – 1 tsp;
walnuts – 120 g;
flour – 1 tbsp. l.;
bay leaf – 3-4 pcs.;
green cilantro – 1 tbsp. l.;
saffron – 0.5 tsp;
salt to taste.

the beef , cut into pieces and add water. Cook for two hours over medium heat. Then remove the meat, strain the broth and bring to a boil. the onion and fry with flour in a frying pan.

Rinse the rice and add it to the broth along with the meat. Add salt, cook for 10 minutes and add fried onion, parsley root, coriander seeds, bay leaf and black pepper. Cook the rice until tender (about 15-20 minutes) and add crushed walnuts.