Gjellë me arra (Chicken with walnuts)

---

A very buttery chicken dish from Albania.

Ingredients

• Olive oil
• 4 large chicken breasts, cut into 2.5 cm cubes
• 2 tablespoons plain flour
• 110 g butter
• 15 finely crushed shelled walnuts
• Garlic, to taste, crushed
• 2 beaten egg yolks

Method

1. Heat some oil in a pan and cook the chicken over a medium heat until cooked.
2. Remove the chicken and keep warm in a covered, hot dish.
3. Put the flour in another pan and dry-cook until it becomes light brown in colour the add half of the butter (about 55 g).
4. Stir in the walnuts, garlic, and the egg yolks.
5. Add the juices from the other saucepan and sauté until all the ingredients thicken.
6. Then immediately remove from the heat to prevent the egg yolks from solidifying and stir in the chicken.
7. Melt the remaining half of the butter and cook until brown.
8. Divide the chicken into servings and pour the browned butter over the top.

Variations

Veal is a good alternative to chicken.

Chef's notes

I would use the smallest amount of olive oil you can get away with when cooking the chicken, otherwise the dish will be swimming in fat.

I made this for 2 people using 2 large chicken breasts, 6 fat garlic cloves, about 50gm of butter, a little extra olive oil in the sauce and 3 or 4 tablespoons of hot water (the liquor from cooking the broccoli) to thin the sauce a little.

Serving suggestion

This went very well with spaghetti and broccoli. It had very little sauce, but with a dash of olive oil on the spaghetti it made a very pleasant dish.