Turmeric Chicken Stew
Ingredients
For the Meatballs:
- 1 pound ground chicken, preferably thigh meat*
- 1 medium onion, coarsely grated
- 2 garlic cloves, finely grated
- ½ cup chopped parsley
- ½ cup breadcrumbs
- 3 tablespoons vegetable oil, divided
- 1 teaspoon ground turmeric
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt
- ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
For the Stew:
- 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 5 small zucchini, trimmed and sliced into ½” rounds
- 5 stalks celery, cleaned with tops, cut into 3-inch strips
- 1 tablespoon ground turmeric
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more to taste
- ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 2 cups water
- ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes, optional
- Couscous or rice, for serving
Turmeric Chicken Stew
Ingredients
For the Meatballs:
- 1 pound ground chicken, preferably thigh meat*
- 1 medium onion, coarsely grated
- 2 garlic cloves, finely grated
- ½ cup chopped parsley
- ½ cup breadcrumbs
- 3 tablespoons vegetable oil, divided
- 1 teaspoon ground turmeric
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt
- ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
For the Stew:
- 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 5 small zucchini, trimmed and sliced into ½” rounds
- 5 stalks celery, cleaned with tops, cut into 3-inch strips
- 1 tablespoon ground turmeric
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more to taste
- ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 2 cups water
- ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes, optional
- Couscous or rice, for serving
A few weeks ago, we got a glimpse into the childhood of Cook in Residence Rinat Tzadok, who inherited much of her Moroccan cooking heritage from her grandfather, Moshe Hamo. He immigrated to Israel with his family from northern Morocco in 1958, and took on the cooking duties in his household after his wife passed away. According to Rinat, Moshe’s inspiration often came from the market, where the ingredients dictated what he would make. “Every day he went to the store, and if today the zucchini was fresh, he’d get zucchini,” says Rinat. He used the vegetable often in a simple chicken stew that he made a few times a week. “It’s not made with a lot of spices, just salt and turmeric,” says Rinat. “My mom told me the secret is that he cooked it for a long time. The zucchini became like a jam, very soft with lots of flavor.”
As an adult, Rinat adapted this slow-simmering recipe to her quicker-paced life. “Life was different when he made it,” says Rinat. “He started in the morning and if it took one or two hours, it was okay for him. Today people aren’t going to make chicken for two hours, they don’t have time for this.” In her adaptation, she abandons the bone-in chicken pieces for tidy chicken meatballs, which she boils separately from a zucchini mixture that’s cooked down with celery, an ingredient that her grandfather used, too. The entire recipe, from beginning to end, takes just a fraction of the time of the original. “The kids love it, everybody loves it, and it looks better,” says Rinat. “But it still captures the flavor.”
