Greek Cookbooks: A Festival of Recipes (Dayton, OH) with Recipes for Chicken with Toursi and Cinnamon-Scented Rice Pilaf / Κοτόπουλο με Τουρσί και Πιλάφι)

On holidays and other special occasions, most of us want the familiar foods of our childhoods. So it was with the Greeks who abruptly left Saranda Ecclessias in the 1920s. On Thanksgiving, the most American of holidays, they combined turkey with Toursi and Cinnamon-Scented Rice Pilaf, a dish redolent with the smells and flavors of their former homes in Eastern Thrace.

Evanthia Valassiades described the dish in A Festival of Recipes: A Collection of Recipes from the Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church in Dayton, Ohio: "This combination may sound unusual but it is really wonderful. Families from Saranta Ecclessias enjoy this meal at Thanksgiving. The stuffing and sauerkraut portions would be doubled for turkey. We don’t stuff the turkey, but bake the rice accompaniment separately.”

For a rich and hearty winter meal, holiday or not, here is my version of Evanthia Valassiades’ recipe. Cinnamon-Scented Pilaf served with sweetened sauerkraut and flavorful chicken is an exotic, and compelling, flavor combination. The sugar renders the sauerkraut sweet rather than sour. I modified Evanthia’s recipe by significantly reducing the amount of sugar (the original recipe called for one cup), and by adding onion and thyme to round out the flavors.

Chicken and Toursi (Κοτόπουλο με Τουρσί)
Serves 6
The recipe is adapted from A Festival of Recipes: A Collection of Recipes from the Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church, Dayton, Ohio, sponsored by G.A.P.A. Women, 2001


Mediterranean Cooking in Alaska has moved as of March 2011. To read this post please go to

http://www.laurieconstantino.com/traditional-east-thracian-fare/


Please click on over and visit my new site. Thank you!