The Capsule Pantry: Croatian Chicken "Gregada" (Croatian Kitchen Purists, Please Don't Kill Me)
And a quick recipe for leftover parsley
Welcome to The Capsule Pantry. Highly flexible, waste-reducing recipes delivered to your inbox every Wednesday, designed to be adapted to what’s in your fridge and pantry. The Capsule Pantry is paid-subscriber only. If you’d like full access, sign up for $5 a month or $50 a year and revolutionize the way you cook today
Last year my husband and I landed in a quiet (Covid-era) Zagreb. Because dining out was restricted, I decided to spend my free time learning how to cook Croatian at home.
I scoured the internet for recipes and came across Gregada - a dish from the Dalmatian islands in the south of the country. Not very Zagrebian which is in the inland north (and feels like an entirely different country to the south), but very simple to make and, I figured, infinitely flexible. Although don’t tell a Dalmatian that.
Gregada in its purest form is layered onions and potatoes spiked with fresh parsley, lemon, garlic and wine. Meaty steaks of white fish are placed on top of the dish which is usually made in a wood-fired barbeque. The broth simmers the potatoes until they’re soft and have taken on the flavor of the meat and stock. It’s punchy, fresh and comforting at the same time.
I didn’t have a wood-fired barbeque in Zagreb. Nor did I have access to fish. So I made it with chicken but friends, it was magical.
This is now one of my favorite dishes. Simple, easy and versatile. Just how we like our recipes at S+S.
The original recipe
Serves 4
700g / 25oz potatoes (any type will do)
5 garlic cloves, finely chopped
Approx 0.5 cup of finely chopped parsley (add more or less depending on your preference)
1 large white onion, cut into half moons
Extra virgin olive oil
1.5 cups hot chicken stock
1/2 cup white wine or juice of half a lemon
4 chicken legs, skin on (on or off the bone)
1 tbsp Hungarian or Spanish smoked paprika
Sea salt
Method
Pre-heat your oven to 180C / 350F.
Get out your mandolin or sharpest knife and finely slice the potatoes into rounds.
Grab a casserole dish and place the onions in a layer on the bottom. Toss in enough olive oil to coat and season with sea salt.
Start to assemble your layers. Each layer will consist of one layer of potato, scattered with parsley and garlic and seasoned with salt. Potato-parsley-garlic-salt. Potato-parsley-garlic-salt. Depending on the depth of your dish, you’ll probably end up with around 3-4 layers.
Take the stock and wine or lemon juice and pour over the potatoes. Cover the dish with a lid and stick it in the oven. The dish will take around 45 minutes to an hour to cook all in all.
Meanwhile, rub your chicken legs with olive oil, the paprika and season with sea salt. Take a skillet, heat it up high and cook the chicken legs on both sides until browned.
The chicken will take less time to cook than the potatoes - depending on the size of the legs, around 30 minutes. It’s a forgiving dish and won’t go dry thanks to the lid and the stock. After around 15 minutes of oven cooking, take the potatoes out of the oven, place the chicken on top of them, re-cover and then back in the oven it goes.
Depending on your oven, this dish may take over an hour. If you’re short on time, you can finish the dish off on the stove. Simmer until a knife goes through the potatoes like butter. Keep an eye on the broth level - you want to have enough that nothing catches on the bottom of the pan.
If you find the liquid is evaporating too quickly, add more wine or some water. You want some broth but not to have it swimming in it - the potatoes should absorb a lot.
Variations
The potatoes
I’ve not yet tried this but a friend swears it works really well using other root vegetables. Celeriac, turnip, swede, even sweet potato or squash (very seasonal right now). It changes the nature of the dish but makes it no less delicious.
The meat
As I say, traditional Gregada is made with fish. Take fillets of raw white fish such as bream or monkfish, or even chunks of whole fish on the bone. Place them on the potatoes for at least 10 and up to 20 minutes (depending on the thickness of your fish). You can’t really overcook the potatoes so wait until they are nearly done before adding the fish.
If you’re using chicken, feel free to disregard the paprika.
Go veggie
You could omit the meat entirely and use the potatoes as a side dish to something like baked aubergine or last week’s stuffed peppers.
Use the leftover parsley in Tabbouleh
When I went to Zagreb’s central market yesterday to pick up ingredients for this dish, a very nice stallholder gave me a HUGE bunch of parsley for free.
So today, I’m going to make tabbouleh - That glorious Lebanese salad that is heavy on the parsley. A great way to use up something that could easily be a contender for the trash:
Serves four for lunch:
Parsley and lots of it - around 2 cups - finely chopped
1 tomato finely chopped
2 scallions, finely chopped
1/4 cup bulgar wheat or couscous
1/4 cup mint leaves (optional)
Juice of half a lemon
Olive oil
Salt and pepper
Cook the bulgar wheat or couscous as per packet instructions. Leave to cool.
Place all ingredients apart from lemon, seasoning and oil into a dish. Stir well.
Add the lemon a little at a time, and a good slug of oil (approx 1-2 tablespoons to start). Season, taste, add more lemon until it’s tangy and oil if it needs it.