Chicken Ticky Tava

We've been stationed here for three years now..well..just shy of three years by two weeks, but still, three years! Throughout our stay, Eric has always asked me to find him some Chicken Tava whenever I make it over to the Turkish market. While I'm picking up our produce from over there, I ask one of the vendors about this mystical thing Eric speaks about and they look at me like I'm some sort of nut. Truth be told, I've heard other people talk about it, but those people were either stationed in Turkey at some point in time, or knew of a restaurant that served it four moves ago. 

Well, a gal on my Facebook ended up posting a link for a Chicken Tava recipe, so after reviewing it and reading the ingredients off to Eric, it was settled that I needed to attempt this sought after meal (all while Eric was giddy with delight). 

• 2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
• 1 1/2 pounds skinless, boneless chicken breast halves - cut into 1 inch cubes
• 1/2 (12 ounce) jar roasted red bell peppers, drained
• 1 (14.5 ounce) can diced tomatoes with juice
• 1 (6 ounce) jar mushrooms, drained
• 1 onion, diced
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• 2 tablespoons of butter
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 (16 ounce) package shredded mozzarella cheese

It's actually a REALLY straight forward recipe. Super super simple. If you don't have a Tagine, you can totally do this on a crock pot if you're wanting to have it cook for several hours. It'll make the chicken very juicy and allow the flavors to enhance, or, you can always do it in a tall stock pot and have it ready within twenty minutes. It's all up to you, really :)

Take the roasted red bell peppers and drain out the juice, then toss them in a food processor / blender. Since I don't have either, I put them in my Manual Food Processor and worked 'em till they were practically a sauce consistency. 

After I was done blending, I tossed in the minced garlic and let it sit together while I finished prepping the rest of the ingredients:

Once everything is opened up and chopped, toss in the Tagine / crock pot and set on medium low heat..set it and forget it. Yes, it's really that easy! 

I let mine cook for a little over four hours and it smelled amazing!! I made some rice to go with this, topped with some mozzarella and bam:

 Eric looked like he won the lottery when he walked in the door because it made him think back to when he lived in Turkey. Apparently he lived off of Tava for quite some time, lol.

So, there ya go! Chicken Tava that actually gets the husbands "thumbs up" since he's actually had it from Turkey :)