Khoresht Fesenjaan (Chicken with Pomegranate Sauce)

Tried this recipe last night and -- overall -- a tasty dish. I’ve had this several times in my favorite NYC Persian restaurant and would like to offer a few suggestions: 1.) In order to balance the potentially overpowering taste of the various spices, include about two tablespoons of lemon juice (or the juice of one lemon) and two or three tablespoons of sugar. This helps balance the flavor and seems more authentic to the dish – I think. 2.) Also, do watch the cooking time. Mine was ready in about 1 hour and 45 minutes. This is pretty close to the authentic way of preparing the dish. It is, however, an acquired taste.

I have to be careful to rate this for what it was and not how it was received. My husband took 2 bites and was done! My grownup daughter loved it and took home half the leftovers! My younger kids poured a bowl of cereal instead. This is not something to make for the picky eater. You really need to love Middle Eastern food. If you do...like I do.. you will love this recipe! I thought it was wonderful. I did have a hard time fitting it all in a 9 x 13 pan (no way!) I used a larger pan and it still spilled over a bit. I also cooked it much less than the recipe called for and still thought I had cooked it just a few minutes too long. Watch the time carefully. Mine was done with a full half hour to spare and I even cooked it at a little bit lower temp because I was going to be leaving the house. I came home with 30 minutes on the clock and wished I had taken it out about even 10 minutes earlier. I loved the spices. I wouldn't change that as others have said. You will either love it or hate it! If you know what to expect...and are actually looking for this type of recipe...you will rave.

This recipe sounded delicious but I found there are some problems with it. First, the cardamom TOTALLY OVERPOWERED the entire dish. Maybe I used the wrong kind (I don't think so) or it happened because I used the spice rather than freshly ground (also don't think so), but it really took over the entire dish. Second, next time I would use about 1/2 or 3/4 as much walnut, because it made the juice too thick. That part is just a preference. I'm going to try thins again sans cardamom or with just a dash.

This dish is absolutely divine. I leave out the saffron, because it is there just for the extra color anyway. I use fresh pomegranates as well--if this dish seems too tart, add a few teaspoons of honey, molasses, or sugar. I also add a teaspoon of cumin and a 1 clove of crushed garlic for more depth. Beautiful, this dish is not, but once people try it, they really love it. If you can't find pomegranates or pomegranate juice, you can substitute prune juice or cranberry juice for a similar effect.

Have made this recipe many times. You may eliminate the cardemom, the saffron and the butternut squash and it would still be a wonderful dish.

Interesting change from the usual chicken casserole, enjoyed by all the family.

This extraordinary recipe was "A#1" with all of My family and friends who have had the chance to try it! Loved the smell of the spices while preparing it! Since I cannot get pomegranate juice here, I used fresh pomegranates and squeezed the juice from them! Great, natural taste! this recipe will definitely be added to my "family favorites"!!

This dish is absolutely amazing! This is supposed to be a very difficult Persian dish to make and it was my first time ever making the dish, but the recipe is so straight-forward and easy to follow. I used eggplant instead of squash because I didn't have squash and I had seen eggplants in other recipes for Fesenjoon and it worked perfectly.

this actually tatsed horrible to me. i may make it again without the spices. i thought pommegranit would taste good with chicken but i couldnt taste it at all due to the overpowering spice mixture.

A very kind friend made this dish for me as a gift. It has an extremely "exotic" flavor, brought about surely by the cardamom, so I wouldn't recommend this for kids or picky eaters. However, the chicken was tender and the sauce (although a horrible drab brown color) was bursting with flavors. I probably wouldn't make this myself again, but enjoyed having it made for me.

Great, easy fesen joon recipe. I am Iranian & used this recipe several times, well received by all.

I wasn't sure if I liked this at first but it does grow on you as you eat it. It has an unusual taste. I replaced the pomegranate juice with a tablespoon of pomegranate molasses. I omitted the squash (didn't have any) and it still tasted very good.

I don't want to give this a bad rating, because I absolutely LOVE persian food, and my friends and I will drive 45 minutes to go to this restaurant that prepares a similiar dish. However, for some reason it didn't work. I tasted the sauce and it seemed fine before I put it in the oven, but after two hours, it looked and tasted gross. There was no flavour and I couldn't taste the saffron at all. I'm pretty sure that I did something wrong, as this recipe is fantastic in Persian restaurants.

This tastes good....but I find the texture odd with the granules of walnuts still somewhat intact (though I ground them in my food processor). And as the other person mentioned, it's not such an attractive dish. But again, it tastes good. Be sure to serve it alongside a colorful dish (such as a nice salad) to "spruce it up" color-wise!

This is mighty tasty! WOW. So impressed with it. Even just the walnuts and pomegranate mixture in the first steps was amazing! (I might just use it as a PB&J replacement once in a while) ;-) Spices were fantastic, although you do have to love cardamom (who doesn't?!) I made mine using Pomegranate Molasses (basically just reduced juice with a bit of sugar and lemon juice). And you can easily adjust the saltiness and sweetness of this dish at the end to your preference.

This came out really tasty, will definitely be making again. I used a whole chicken and baked in a dutch oven.

a lot of work to prepare. family only liked it. I loved it

I've never eaten this dish before, so I don't really have a set idea of what it is supposed to taste like. However, I love trying new foods and was interested in seeing what this would turn out like. I thought it was interesting although not sure I'm a huge fan. Hubs was not a fan at all and wanted to know where the other leftovers were. He ate this but wasn't thrilled. I'm thinking his dislike stems from the cardamom, which he hasn't really seemed to like in any dish. I'm also willing to admit this could totally be my fault that we didn't like it--I did leave out the saffron because I'm not interested in using an expensive spice just for the color. I love saffron for the flavor. However, I did base that decision on the one review that mentioned it, so perhaps if I'd kept it in we would've enjoyed it more. Thanks for the recipe!