A couple of years ago while vacationing in Greece, I was up in my Dad’s town (Amynteo) and even though I always enjoy going back to visit the region of my ancestors…I’ve grown tired of chasing chickens (think Rocky Balboa). Amynteo is about 90 minutes north-west of Thessaloniki, in the region of Florina. Beside  Florina (an hour west) is Kastoria and it’s surrounding villages & towns.

[cincopa AUFAKc63S6GR]

My friend Yianni’s mother is from Kastoria and he invited me to stay there for an evening, soaking-up as much of the scenery and food as one could! One of the local dishes of Kastoria is Kotopoulo (Chicken) Maskouli and it’s a unique dish in that the sauce is thickened by walnuts. Cookbook author and Greek cuisine authority, Aglaia Kremezi adds that similar dishes are made in the Peloponnese and on the island of Lesvos )Mytillini where it is called Maskoulo or Skordalevria. Pork Lagoto (from Arcadia) uses pork, Goose is used in a dish from Thrace and even crayfish from Ioannina (Epirus) gets a similar treatment, thickened with garlic and walnuts.

Aglaia’s friend, Paula Wolfert (another esteemed cookbook author) also adds that Kotopoulo Maskouli is similar to the more well-know Circassian Chicken enjoyed from Turkey to Persia (and regions in between). The big difference between Kotopoulo Maskouli and Circassian Chicken is that one is served hot and the latter is served cold.

The traditional Kotopoulo Maskouli involves boiling a cut-up whole chicken which will leave one with tender meat and a flavourful stock. Then a batter of flour, water and eggs is prepared, followed by dunking the pieces of chicken in the mixture and frying them off. Some more fat (likely animal lard back then) is added and some more flour is added, along with a gradual addition of stock, wine vinegar and ground walnuts to ultimately thicken the sauce.

This dish was likely served on a bed of local Hilopites (hand-made egg noodles made throughout Greece) and that’s how I’m presenting my version. My own twist is to add some earthy mushrooms to the dish for added flavour and an ideal pairing with both the chicken and the homemade noodles. I’ve added some dry white Greek wine and a dessert wine from Limnos – a Moscato. The islands of Samos and Limnos produced wonderful Moscato (a grape varietal) and this wine is usually paired with dessert or a cheese course. Additional flavourings are offered by bay leaves, thyme and some fresh parsley at the end.

Kotopoulo (Chicken) Maskouli (Κοτόπουλο Μάσκουλι)

(serves 4)

4 pieces of chicken (leg/thigh quarters)

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

2 leeks or two large onions, sliced

4-5 cloves of garlic, minced

2 cups of Cremini mushrooms, sliced

3 bay leaves

2 tsp. of thyme leaves

1/2 cup dry white wine

1/2 cup Moscato wine (or other fortified wine)

2 cups of vegetable or chicken stock

1 tsp. sweet paprika

coarse sea salt and fresh ground pepper

3/4 cup walnuts (or almonds)

1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley

500 gr. of broad egg noodles

(optional) crisp bacon bits for garnish

1. Rinse and pat-dry your your chicken pieces and season with coarse sea salt and fresh ground pepper (leave skin on). Place a large skillet on your stove-top over medium-high heat and add some olive oil into the pan and place the chicken in the skillet and brown on both sides, then reserve the chicken. In the same skillet add the leeks (or onions), garlic, mushrooms, thyme and bay leaves and stir to coat everything with the oil. Season with some more salt and pepper and saute for 5 minutes. Cover the skillet for another 5 minutes so that the mushrooms can sweat. Uncover and continue to simmer until almost all the liquid has evaporated.
2. Add the wines, stock, paprika and bring to a boil then reduce heat to a simmer. Adjust seasoning with some salt and pepper then add the chicken pieces into the skillet (liquid should come up halfway up the sides of the chicken meat. Simmer for about 35-40 minutes or until reduced to half.
3. In the meantime, place your walnuts with a bit of olive oil into a mini food processor and and process until ground, set aside. Test to see of the meat of the chicken comes off the bone, if so – remove and reserve on a plate. Add your ground walnuts into the sauce and simmer until thick (about 5 minutes). Adjust seasoning with salt and pepper, add chopped parsely, stir in and place the pieces of chicken back in the skillet, remove from the heat and keep warm.
4. Place a large pot of water on your stove-top and bring to a boil. Season your water with salt and once the water has returned to a boil, add your egg noodles and cook according to packet instructions. Strain, divide and plate. Serve a portion of chicken along with the sauce over each bed of noodles. Top with crisp bacon bits if desired.
5. Serve with Gerovassliou Malagouzia white.

If you are not reading this post in a feed reader or at  https://kalofagas.ca then the site you are reading is illegally publishing copyrighted material. Contact me at truenorth67 AT gmail DOT COM. All recipes, text and photographs in this post are the original creations & property of the author.

© 2007-2011 Peter Minakis