Khoresh Fesenjan, also known as fesenjoon, is a Persian sweet and sour stew made with walnuts, pomegranate molasses, and chicken. You will find it sweeter in some Perisan homes, and sourer in others. I personally prefer it on the sour side, and I will show you how to make it both ways.
Serve with Persian Steamed Basmati Rice and tons of sabzi khordan (fresh herbs & vegetables).
🌟Why you’ll love this recipe
🧾Ingredients in this recipe
See the recipe card for full information on ingredients and quantities.
👩🍳How to Make This Recipe
Sweet or Sour?
A great way to test how sweet or sour the dish is and make sure it’s to your preference is to mix together the pomegranate molasses, walnuts, and water in a bowl before adding them to the chicken. Taste it. If it is too sour for you, add brown sugar, one tablespoon at a time, until the balance of sweet and sour satisfies your tastebuds.
Serve with Persian Steamed Rice. If you don’t want to make rice, you can add small potatoes to the stew after 1 hour. Poke a few holes in the potatoes with a fork before adding them to the stew.
A note on consistency.
If the stew comes out too liquidy, you can add more ground walnuts. The stew should not be too thin, so you can also leave the lid off for 15-20 minutes to let some of the liquid evaporate.
Fesenjoon is best served reheated the next day, but is also delicious the day-of. To reheat, add a couple of tablespoons of stock or water and heat over low temperature until hot. It also freezes very, very well.
🍲 More Persian Stews
Fesenjoon is one of my favorite Persian stews, and I have a few others. These are ones I crave regularly and grew up eating weekly, or check out all of my Persian recipes here.
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Fesenjoon (Persian Pomegranate & Walnut Chicken Stew)
Print Recipe SaveIngredients
- 2 cups walnuts
- 2 tbsp flavorless oil canola, avocado, grapeseed, or vegetable
- 1 onion diced
- 1 chicken quartered or cut into 8-pcs
- salt and pepper to taste
- ¼ tsp ground turmeric
- 1 cup pomegranate molasses see notes for store-bought link
- 2 cups water
- small potatoes optional
Instructions
- Prepare your walnuts. You can chop them finely or pulse them in a food processor. I like to keep some chunky for texture (see photo in post), but this dish also comes out great when they are pulsed finely. Set aside.
- Heat the oil over medium heat. Add the diced onion. Cook for a couple minutes, coating the onion in the oil.
- Then add the chicken pieces. Season with salt, pepper, and the tumeric. Brown on all sides, 10-12 min.
- Add the pomegranate molasses and about 2 cups water to the pot**. You want the liquid to cover the chicken. Then add the pulsed walnuts.
- Bring to a boil, reduce to the lowest simmer, and cook for 2 hours.
- If you don't want to make rice, you can add small potatoes to the stew after 1 hour. Poke a few holes in the potatoes with a fork before adding them to the stew.
- This stew is best served reheated the next day, but is also delicious the day-of. To reheat, add a couple tablespoons of stock or water and heat over low temperature until hot.
I’ve made another recipe before and it came out watery. This one was perfect.
This was delicious.
The chicken in this stew is so flavorful and I really liked the crunch of the walnuts. Really tasty over rice. Also my first time cooking with pomegranate molasses. Thanks for the recipe!
Very nice. I like to make this in a slow cooker. I like to toast the walnuts then grind and mix with the cooked onions and pomegranate molasses. Fry together for a few minutes and transfer to slow cooker as a base. Shake chicken with spices and brown for a few minutes then place on top of pom/onion/walnut base. Cook on low for 5-6 hours. Nice with duck, too.
Merci and Tashakkor mikonam for your wonderful blog.
Thank you so much for sharing, James. I will need to try it in a slow cooker one day. I’m glad you enjoyed it!